Tozai Line — Tokyo subway
Sky-blue line straight across Tokyo from Nakano to Nishi-funabashi, with rapid trains and through running at both ends.
The Tozai Line at a glance
The Tozai Line is 30.8 km long and crosses the city east to west, from Nakano in Tokyo to Nishi-funabashi in Chiba Prefecture, by way of Takadanobaba, Waseda, Otemachi, Nihombashi, Kiba and Urayasu. It was built as a bypass for the Chuo Rapid and Sobu lines, which were already overloaded when it was planned.
Two things set it apart. It spends 14 km above ground between Minami-sunamachi and Nishi-funabashi, nearly half its length and more than any other line in the Tokyo subway. And it is heavily used: in 2024 it carried a daily average of nearly 1.5 million passengers, the busiest line on the network, with peak crowding measured at 199 per cent between Kiba and Monzen-nakacho in 2018.
What to watch out for on the Tozai Line
Every station on the Tozai Line
23 stations in order with their station numbers. A ringed dot marks a station where you can transfer; the small coloured dots are the other lines there.
Nakano ↔ Nishi-funabashi
23 stations
Service hours on the Tozai Line
| Timetable | First – last departure on the line |
|---|---|
| Weekdays | 04:58 – 00:37 |
| Saturdays, Sundays & holidays | 04:58 – 00:37 |
Departure times come from the operators’ own GTFS timetables (ODPT GTFS Toei-Train-GTFS (version 20261009, valid 2026-03-14..2027-03-12) + TokyoMetro-Train-GTFS (version 20261008, valid 2026-09-19..2027-03-12)). Japan publishes two subway timetables: 平日 weekdays and 土休日 Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays. There is no separate Sunday timetable, and the December 30 – January 3 period runs the holiday timetable. Each station page gives its own first and last train by direction.
How often trains run
| Timetable | Morning peak (08:00) | Midday (12:00) | Evening (21:00) | Measured at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekdays | 2.4 min | 5 min | 3.8 min | Monzen-nakacho |
| Saturdays, Sundays & holidays | 4 min | 5 min | 6 min | Monzen-nakacho |
Average gap between trains in one direction at the busiest station of the line.
Where you can transfer
| Station | Other lines | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| T06 Iidabashi | YYurakucho NNamboku EOedo | Toei Subway Tokyo Metro |
| T07 Kudanshita | ZHanzomon SShinjuku | Toei Subway Tokyo Metro |
| T09 Otemachi | MMarunouchi CChiyoda ZHanzomon IMita | Toei Subway Tokyo Metro |
| T10 Nihombashi | GGinza AAsakusa | Toei Subway Tokyo Metro |
| T11 Kayabacho | HHibiya | Tokyo Metro |
| T12 Monzen-nakacho | EOedo | Toei Subway |
A transfer to a line of the other company is a change of railway as well as of platform: your fare is the sum of the two, less the connecting discount. See fares.
History
A route of this kind was first set out in 1917 by a transport committee inside the Ministry of Home Affairs, which proposed a line from Ikebukuro through Takadanobaba and Iidabashi to Susaki. A patent granted in 1920 was revoked after the 1923 earthquake because nothing had been built. The licence that became the Tozai Line was issued on 16 May 1925 as Line 5, a 14.2 km route from Ikebukuro to Susaki, and passed to the Teito Rapid Transit Authority in 1941; the eastern section towards Nishi-funabashi had been licensed separately, to a company that never built it, and that licence lapsed in 1940.
The modern plan was settled by a transport ministry committee in 1962 and the first stretch, Takadanobaba to Kudanshita, opened on 23 December 1964. The line grew at both ends — to Nakano and Takebashi in March 1966, Otemachi that October, Toyocho in September 1967 — and reached Nishi-funabashi on 29 March 1969, when rapid services also began. Through running with the then Japanese National Railways started in 1966 and was extended to Mitaka and Tsudanuma in April 1969, a first for a Tokyo subway line. Nishi-kasai was added in 1979, Minami-gyotoku in 1981 and Myoden in 2000, and the Toyo Rapid Railway, effectively an eastward extension in private hands, opened on 27 April 1996. Women-only cars were introduced on 20 November 2006.
Trains and service
Two timetables are published, 平日 for weekdays and 土休日 for Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays, and there is no night service: first trains leave about 04:58 and the last about 00:37. Measured at Monzen-nakacho, weekday trains run roughly every two to three minutes in the morning peak, every five minutes at midday and every four in the evening; the Saturday and holiday peak is nearer four minutes. Local trains call everywhere, while rapid and commuter rapid trains skip stations east of Toyocho. Through trains run to Mitaka over the JR Chuo-Sobu Local Line at the western end, and to Toyo-Katsutadai on the Toyo Rapid Railway or Tsudanuma on the Sobu Line at the eastern end.
Rolling stock
Trains are ten-car formations of 20 m cars with four doors a side and longitudinal seating, running up to 100 km/h; the newer sets have wider doors to speed up boarding. Tokyo Metro supplies the 05 and 05N series, in service since 1988, the 07 series transferred from the Yurakucho Line in 2006 and the 15000 series from 2010. Because the line has through services at both ends, Toyo Rapid Railway 2000 series and JR East E231-800 series trains also work it. Depots are at Fukagawa and Gyotoku.
Frequently asked questions
Local trains stop at every station. Rapid trains skip stations east of Toyocho, a pattern introduced when the line reached Nishi-funabashi in 1969. Commuter rapid trains, added in 1986, run non-stop between Urayasu and Nishi-funabashi and call everywhere west of there. Each station page lists what calls there.
For 14 km it does, between Minami-sunamachi and Nishi-funabashi. That is nearly half the line and longer than any other above-ground stretch on the Tokyo subway, which is why the eastern half feels like a suburban railway rather than a metro.
Because they leave the subway at the end of it. Westbound trains continue onto the JR Chuo-Sobu Local Line for Mitaka; eastbound ones run onto the Toyo Rapid Railway for Toyo-Katsutadai or the Sobu Line for Tsudanuma. Outside the peaks only local trains go through to the Chuo Line and only rapid trains to the Toyo Rapid.