History
Otaru Station opened on 28 June 1903 as the privately built Hokkaido Railway's Otaru Chūō Station, the northern terminus of the extension from Ranshima. It carried four different names before settling on 'Otaru' on 15 July 1920, when the older Otaru Station to the south was renamed Minami-Otaru to end persistent passenger confusion. Nationalised in 1907, it joined the Hakodate Main Line in 1909. The present reinforced-concrete depot, built in 1934, was Hokkaido's first RC-frame station and was registered as a national tangible cultural property in 2006. JR Hokkaido took over at privatisation on 1 April 1987; ICard Kitaca service began in 2008.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Notes
On 17 December 1924, 13 tonnes of explosives being unloaded at the station's wharf detonated, killing or leaving missing 85 people and injuring 264 more.