History
Ashibetsu Station opened on 1913-11-10 as Shimo-Ashibetsu Station, a general station on the Kushiro Main Line (today's Nemuro Main Line) when the Takikawa–Shimo-Furano (now Furano) section was completed. The 1920s onward saw narrow-gauge coal lines from the Ashibetsu and Mitsubishi mines reach the station, and from 1940 the Mitsui Mining private railway extended westward to Mitsui-Ashibetsu, becoming the Mitsui Ashibetsu Railway in 1960 and carrying passengers from 1949 to 1972. The current building was rebuilt in March 1947. The station was renamed Ashibetsu on 1946-05-01 following a district renaming. JR Hokkaido inherited the station at the 1987 privatisation. The Mitsui Ashibetsu Railway closed entirely on 1989-03-26. The Midori-no-Madoguchi counter closed on 2016-03-25, and the city of Ashibetsu has run a simple-commission ticket office on the premises since 2016-04-01.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
On 18 August 1954 the imperial train carrying Emperor Shōwa and Empress Kōjun from Obihiro toward Otaru stopped at Ashibetsu, where a station-front welcome ceremony was held.