There have been some pretty geeky train station-related posts in the past on Tokyo Fox but this one really pushes the nerd levels to the extreme! Only those stations located geographically inside Tokyo are included so the Tokyo Disneyland stations, for example, are not included as they are technically in Chiba prefecture.

I should add that this wasn’t done on one trip. In fact, it was done over the space of about two years as I really didn’t want to make specific journeys just to see the inside of a station! In that time TheTokyoFiles not only beat me to it but bettered it by doing it for the whole of Japan! Click here to see that post.

For those who don’t know, Japanese has three styles of characters for writing. Kanji comes from Chinese and is the most complex with each one representing a concept. Hiragana is for Japanese words and katakana is for foreign words. I mentioned in a Room 101 post about Japan six years ago that I was not a fan of the latter as the word has to fit in with the sounds available in Japanese meaning that some words get completely butchered and can be a mystery when read!

The 18 stations (*) are listed below in alphabetical order (maybe not the best of ideas as it means a load of Haneda Airport ones come early!) with words in bold identifying which parts of the station name are in katakana. It should be noted that the katakana word biru (ビル) in numbers 2, 3 and 4 below is short for building and is not used in the English translation.

1. Ariake-Tennis-No-Mori Station (有明テニスの森駅) on the Yurikamome Line

2. Haneda Airport International Terminal (羽田空港国際線ビル駅) on the Tokyo Monorail

3. Haneda Airport Terminal 1 (羽田空港第１ビル) on the Tokyo Monorail

4. Haneda Airport Terminal 2 (羽田空港第２ビル) on the Tokyo Monorail

5. Haneda Airport International Terminal (羽田空港国際線ターミナル駅) on the Keikyu Airport Line

6. Haneda Airport Domestic Terminal (羽田空港国内線ターミナル駅) on the Keikyu Airport Line

7. Keio Tama Center (多摩センター駅) on the Keio Sagamihara Line

8. Keiō-Yomiuriland (京王よみうりランド駅) on the Keio Sagamihara Line

9. Monorail Hamamatsuchō (モノレール浜松町駅) on the Tokyo Monorail

10. Odakyu Tama Center (多摩センター駅) on the Odakyu Tama Line

11. Ryūtsū Center (流通センター駅) on the Tokyo Monorail

12. Shinagawa Seaside (品川シーサイド駅) on the TWR Rinkai Line 

13. Tama-Center (多摩センター駅) on the Tama Monorail

14. Telecom Center (テレコムセンター駅) on the Yurikamome Line

15. Tennōzu Isle (天王洲アイル駅 ) on the Tokyo Monorail 

16. Tennōzu Isle (天王洲アイル駅 ) on the TWR Rinkai Line

17. Tokyo Sky Tree (とうきょうスカイツリー駅) on the Tokyo Skytree Line

18. Tokyo Teleport (東京テレポート駅) on the Rinkai Line

UPDATE: (*) Three new Katakana-named stations have come along since this post was originally published. The two on the Yurikamome Line were renamed in March 2019 and the other was a new station on the Yamanote Line which opened in March 2020. 

19. Tokyo International Cruise Terminal (東京国際クルーズターミナル駅) on the Yurikamome Line

20. Tokyo Big Sight (東京ビッグサイト駅) on the Yurikamome Line

21. Takanawa Gateway (高輪ゲートウェイ駅) on the Yamanote Line

Click here to read ‘Cycling The A-Z Of Tokyo’

Click here to read ‘Cycling The Yamanote Line’

Click here to read ‘#WeStopAtNothing! Platform Zeros In Japan, Z Stations In Tokyo & The Opening Of A New Yamanote Line Station’