Doai Station
Doai Station is a passenger railway station in the town of Minakami, Gunma, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company. It is jokingly known as "Japan's Number One Mole Station" because passengers must make a 10 minute descent down 486 steps into a tunnel in order to reach the northbound platform. It is the deepest train station in Japan.
Lines
Doai Station is served by the Joetsu Line, and lies from the starting point of the line at.Services
, there are 8 services per day in each direction, with gaps of 1–3 hours between services. Southbound services operate to while northbound services operate to. All services are Local trains, stopping at every station. Freight trains also use both platforms.Station layout
Doai Station is unusual in that it has two single side platforms which are located approximately from each other – one of which is at ground level, and the other is located underground within the Shin-shimizu Tunnel.The underground platform is located underground, in the middle of the long Shin-Shimizu Tunnel. It is only reachable by descending 486 stairs, as there are no elevators or escalators. Access from the ticket gate is through a covered connecting passageway which crosses both National Route 291 and the Yuhiso River, then entering a tunnel and descending another 462 steps to the platform.
The underground platform, which takes 10 minutes to reach on foot from the ticket gate, has a small waiting room. It used to have a toilet but it was closed around 2022.
The above-ground platform for southbound trains is at ground level. It is accessible from the ticket gate, i.e. features no steps, although there are stairs at the entrance to the station building.
The station has been unattended since to 14 March 1985. There are no ticket machines, only a boarding certificate issuing machine. Suica and other IC cards cannot be used at the station.
History
- The single track Joetsu Line between and opened in 1931, using the Shimizu Tunnel which includes two spiral loops.
- Doai Station opened on 19 December 1936.
- The Joetsu Line was converted from single track to double track in 1967, using the Shin-Shimizu Tunnel. Advancements in tunneling enabled construction of a more direct route yet deeper tunnel compared to the original tunnel. As a result, passengers catching northbound trains at and Doai Stations do so from platforms situated underground within the new Shin-Shimizu Tunnel. In conjunction, the current station building was opened in 1967.
- The Joetsu Shinkansen opened in 1982. Due to the shift of most passengers to the Shinkansen, most express trains on the Joetsu Line ceased operating, and those remaining were gradually removed as Joetsu Line passenger numbers decreased.
- With the privatization of Japanese National Railways on 1 April 1987, the station came under the control of JR East.
In popular media
The climb up the steps from the underground platform features at the start of the novel Seventeen by Hideo Yokoyama, as well as in the NHK dramatization and the movie version Climber's High. It also makes an appearance in the manga and anime series Encouragement of Climb as a destination prior to climbing Mount Tanigawa, west of the site.Online sources state it is haunted, and as such has become a local ghost hunting spot.