Located on the northeastern end of the Ueno plateau, JR Nishi-Nippori Station is the newest among the 29 stations along the JR Yamanote loop.

The station opened in 1971 to facilitate transfers between the train line and the subway network, a station for which opened in Nishi-Nippori two years earlier.

Although just 800 meters and 500 meters, respectively, from its two neighboring Yamanote stations (Tabata to the northwest and Nippori to the southeast), Nishi-Nippori Station was a boon to students at Kaisei Gakuen, an elite private school for boys located a minute away.