History
Naka-Shari Station (station number B71) is on the JR Hokkaido Senmō Main Line in Shari, Hokkaido. It opened on 14 November 1929 as Sarumagawa Station (猿澗川駅) and was renamed Naka-Shari on 10 September 1950 — the name simply reflects its position between Shari (now Shiretoko-Shari) and Kami-Shari (now Kiyosato-cho) stations. According to Shari's Wikipedia article, Shari is the easternmost municipality of the Okhotsk Subprefecture, faces the Sea of Okhotsk, and shares the 25-km-wide, 65-km-long Shiretoko Peninsula with Rausu — the area containing the Shiretoko National Park, which was inscribed on the UNESCO World Natural Heritage list in 2005.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-25.
Notes
The Shari article describes how in 1977 the town launched Japan's first National-Trust-style citizen-funded land-acquisition drive, the "Shiretoko 100-Square-Metre Movement," buying back 860 hectares of former pioneer farmland to keep development out of the World Heritage area.