Jōhana Line

The Jōhana Line began as a private venture and holds the distinction of being the first railway built in Toyama Prefecture. It was opened in 1897 by the Chūetsu Railway (中越鉄道), which laid a route from the area around Takaoka south to Jōhana. The first section, from a temporary station at Kuroda to Fukuno, opened on 4 May 1897, a distance of about 17.2 km. The railway was then extended in quick succession, reaching Fukumitsu on 18 August 1897 and Jōhana on 31 October 1897.

The through route was completed on 2 January 1898, when the short remaining stretch from Takaoka to the Kuroda temporary station opened and that temporary station was closed, giving a continuous line from Takaoka to Jōhana. The Chūetsu Railway also built northward from Takaoka toward the port of Fushiki, so that its system ran from Fushiki through Takaoka to Jōhana — a configuration that would later be split between two separate JR lines.

The Chūetsu Railway was nationalised on 1 September 1920, and the whole of its network — the Fushiki–Takaoka–Jōhana route — was taken into the state railways as the Chūetsu Line (中越線). The line kept that name for two decades. On 1 August 1942 the Fushiki–Takaoka section was incorporated into the Himi Line, and the remaining Takaoka–Jōhana section was renamed the Jōhana Line, the name it still carries today.

Under the Japanese National Railways (JNR) the line remained a rural, non-electrified branch worked by diesel railcars. Centralised traffic control (CTC) was commissioned over the entire line on 1 March 1983, with the control centre established at Takaoka. When JNR was divided and privatised on 1 April 1987, the Jōhana Line passed to the newly formed West Japan Railway Company (JR West), which has operated it ever since with KiHa 40-series diesel multiple units based at the Toyama depot of the Kanazawa General Rolling Stock Centre.

The line gained a new connection to the high-speed network on 14 March 2015, when Shin-Takaoka Station opened to coincide with the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Kanazawa, giving Jōhana Line passengers an interchange with the bullet train. Earlier, on 10 October 2015, JR West had introduced the sightseeing train "Belles Montagnes et Mer" (べるもんた, "Bellmonta"), running over the Jōhana and Himi lines to showcase the scenery of the Tonami Plain and the coast. More recently, the IC fare card ICOCA became usable on the Shin-Takaoka–Jōhana section in March 2026.

The Jōhana Line is now slated to leave the JR West network. In October 2023 Toyama Prefecture and the lineside municipalities agreed on a policy under which the third-sector operator Ainokaze Toyama Railway would take over both the Jōhana and Himi lines from JR West. On 8 February 2024 the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism approved a railway-business reconstruction plan, under which the transfer to the Ainokaze Toyama Railway — together with the introduction of all-new rolling stock — is to be completed roughly five years after the plan's implementation began in February 2024.

• 18974 May: the Chūetsu Railway opens its first section, from the Kuroda temporary station to Fukuno (about 17.2 km) — the first railway in Toyama Prefecture.
• 189718 August: the line is extended from Fukuno to Fukumitsu (about 5.33 km).
• 189731 October: the line is extended from Fukumitsu to Jōhana (about 5.03 km).
• 18982 January: the Takaoka–Kuroda temporary-station gap (about 2.21 km) opens and the temporary station is closed, completing the through line from Takaoka to Jōhana.
• 19201 September: the Chūetsu Railway is nationalised; the Fushiki–Takaoka–Jōhana route becomes the government railways' Chūetsu Line.
• 19421 August: the Fushiki–Takaoka section is incorporated into the Himi Line and the remaining Takaoka–Jōhana section is renamed the Jōhana Line.
• 19831 March: centralised traffic control (CTC) is commissioned over the entire line, with the control centre at Takaoka.
• 19871 April: with the division and privatisation of JNR, the Jōhana Line is taken over by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West).
• 201514 March: Shin-Takaoka Station opens to coincide with the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Kanazawa, giving the line a Shinkansen interchange.
• 201510 October: JR West introduces the sightseeing train 'Belles Montagnes et Mer' (Bellmonta), running over the Jōhana and Himi lines.
• 202323 October: Toyama Prefecture and lineside municipalities agree on a policy for the third-sector Ainokaze Toyama Railway to take over the Jōhana and Himi lines from JR West.
• 20248 February: the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism approves a reconstruction plan under which the transfer to the Ainokaze Toyama Railway, with all-new rolling stock, is to be completed roughly five years after implementation begins (February 2024).
• 202614 March: the IC card 'ICOCA' becomes usable on the Shin-Takaoka–Jōhana section.