| Doai Station | |
| Style: | JR East |
| Native Name: | 土合駅 |
| Native Name Lang: | ja |
| Address: | 218-2 Yubiso, Minakami Town, Tone District, Gunma Prefecture 379-1728 |
| Country: | Japan |
| Coordinates: | 36.8313°N 138.9671°W |
| Distance: | from |
| Platforms: | 2 side platforms |
| Tracks: | 2 |
| Structure: | At grade and underground |
| Levels: | 2 |
| Status: | Unstaffed |
| Passengers: | 19 daily |
| Pass Year: | FY2013 |
| Map Type: | Japan Gunma Prefecture#Japan Kanto#Japan |
| Map Dot Label: | Doai Station |
is a passenger railway station in the town of Minakami, Gunma, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It is jokingly known as "Japan's Number One Mole Station" (日本一のモグラ駅, Nippon ichi no mogura eki)[1] due to the fact that passengers must make a 10 minute descent down 486 steps into a tunnel in order to reach the northbound platform.[2] It is the deepest train station in Japan.[3]
Doai Station is served by the Joetsu Line, and lies 69.3km (43.1miles) from the starting point of the line at .
, there are 8 services per day in each direction, with gaps of 1-3 hours between services.[4] Southbound services operate to while northbound services operate to . All services are Local trains, stopping at every station. Freight trains (hauled by electric locomotives) also use both platforms.
Doai Station is unusual in that it has two single side platforms which are located approximately 400m (1,300feet) from each other[5] – one of which is at ground level, and the other is located 70m (230feet) underground within the Shin-Shimizu Tunnel.
The underground platform (for northbound trains to and) is located 70m (230feet) underground, in the middle of the 13500abbr=offNaNabbr=off long Shin-Shimizu Tunnel. It is only reachable by descending 486 stairs, as there are no elevators or escalators.[6] Access from the ticket gate is through a 143m (469feet) covered connecting passageway (with 2 small flights of stairs with 12 steps each) 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 descend to 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 (to) is at ground level. It is accessible (i.e. no steps) from the ticket gate, although there are stairs at the entrance to the station building.
The station is unattended.[7] It was attended prior to 14 March 1985.[8] There are no ticket machines, only a boarding certificate issuing machine. Suica and other IC cards are not accepted at Doai Station.
The climb up the steps from the underground platform features at the start of the novel Seventeen (in Japanese, Climber's High) 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.[10]