Nohi Bus has started the shuttle bus service operation to Norikura in 1948.
The mountain trail (current Norikura Skyline) was planned as a military road to construct the experimental laboratory for the development of airplane engines available to the high-altitude flight by the old army. The army planned to construct the road wide enough for trucks to pass through. However, considering the conversion to a scenic road after the war, the first president of Nohi Bus, Seiichi Joujima, persuaded the army to accept the construction of 3.6 m wide road with which bus operation could be approved. Joujima offered to pay 80 thousand yen from his private funds out of the total cost of 420 thousand yen (total construction cost, about 400 million yen in today’s value).

The road construction work was started in 1941 and opened to traffic in autumn 1942 after difficult constructions, but it was not actually used as a military road because the war finished a few years later. Since then, the test run of shuttle bus to Norikura was conducted in July 1948 using "Romancecar," Japan's first vehicle with a complete glass ceiling. This vehicle was developed to allow passengers enjoy Norikura's marvelous scenery from inside of the vehicle. Although the scenery from inside was outstanding, regrettably the service ended after a few years because at that time buses did not have air-conditioner and it had a poor reputation on interior heat due to the direct summer sunlight shining through the glass ceiling.

It is said that the mountain roads to Norikura at the time of opening to traffic was very narrow and unpaved with many rolling stones on it and a conductor had to get off the bus to remove them in order to drive on the road. It was also said that a conductor had to ask for passengers' help to push a bus when it could not climb the road due to its heavy weight at a hairpin curve.

The record showed that the bus operated for 56 days and 116 thousand passengers used it in 1959. However, the number of passengers gradually decreased due to the increase of private cars since private car use rapidly became popular in or around 1965. It is said that 5,600 private cars visited here on the peak day in 1967. Since then, a prefectural road, Norikura Park Line, was substantially improved and a mountain toll road, "Norikura Skyline," was completed in 1973. After 30 years of operation as a toll road, now it is the road where only buses, taxis and bicycles can pass through, restricting private vehicle use to eliminate traffic congestion and to protect the natural environment from 2003 onward.