Okaya

No publicly available departure data for this station.

Okaya Station opened on 25 November 1905 as a general station with the extension of the state Chūō Main Line from Fujimi. The Chūō Line was extended west to Shiojiri via Tatsuno on 11 June 1906. Until the Shiojiri-tunnel route via Midoriko opened on 5 July 1983 — long studied but technically too demanding for the era — through trains had to take the looping older alignment from Okaya. The current concrete station building dates from 20 November 1952 and was given a brick-effect facelift on 15 March 2016. The station joined JR East at the 1987 JNR breakup, gained automatic ticket gates on 12 December 2005, and entered the Suica zone on 1 April 2014. "Midori no Madoguchi" closed on 30 September 2020.

Although nominally a through station, almost all Iida Line trains run beyond their official terminus at Tatsuno and into Okaya, so passengers can ride south to Iida without changing at the boundary.