History
Ranshima Station opened on 10 December 1902 as part of the private Hokkaido Railway's first segment between Shikaribetsu and the new station, before the line was extended north to Otaru Chūō (now Otaru) on 28 June 1903. The station was renamed Oshoro on 15 October 1904 and reverted to Ranshima on 15 December 1905. Following the 1 July 1907 nationalisation of the Hokkaido Railway, the station joined the Japanese Government Railways and was incorporated into the Hakodate Main Line on 12 October 1909. Freight handling ended on 5 September 1974 and luggage handling on 1 March 1982, with the station made unstaffed under simple-trust operation on 31 March 1984. Ownership passed to JR Hokkaido on 1 April 1987, and simple-trust operation finally ended on 1 October 2019.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
From the late 1980s the station played to a wider audience: a 1988 Glico Pocky commercial filmed it as the fictional "Minayama Station", and the 2005 film NANA used it as the equally invented "Kitaminato Station".