History
The stop began on 11 February 1947 as the Asahino temporary halt on the JGR Abashiri Main Line, built without payment by local residents after 22 of them petitioned for a station the previous October. A wooden depot was completed around 1949, and on 15 January 1950 the halt was upgraded to a full station and renamed Nishi-Memambetsu. A freight platform was added in 1951 but became unusable after about three years through ground subsidence. The station joined the Sekihoku Main Line on 1 April 1961, was unstaffed from 10 January 1983, and was inherited by JR Hokkaido at privatisation on 1 April 1987. Memambetsu Airport relocated to within roughly 2 km of the station in 1985.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The original station was funded and physically built by 22 local residents who had petitioned the railway in 1946 — and was relocated from its planned site after the marshy ground refused to take fill.