History
Kitahama opened on 15 November 1924 as a general station on the Japanese Government Railways. Freight handling ended on 10 September 1982 and parcel handling on 1 February 1984; on 1 March 1984 station staff were withdrawn and the station became kan'i itaku (simply-managed). The former station office was renovated and reopened as the cafe 'Teishaba' on 15 July 1986. With the privatisation of JNR on 1 April 1987 the station passed to JR Hokkaido, and on 1 February 2002 an observation deck for viewing drift ice was built inside the station precincts. From around 1980 the 19th stationmaster Kimura Shigeru placed a graffiti notebook in the waiting room and put up signs advertising the station as 'the railway station closest to the Sea of Okhotsk — 20 metres from the coast,' which drew growing tourist traffic.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
Kitahama was used as the location for 'Abashiri Station' in the 1965 film 'Abashiri Bangaichi' (Abashiri Prison), and has since appeared in many films and TV dramas. The waiting room walls are covered with business cards and tickets left by visiting travellers.