History
Higashi-Kushiro began life on 16 March 1925 as Beppo Signal Stop on the Ministry of Railways' Nemuro Main Line, set up as the freight-accounting interchange with the Kushiro Rinkō Railway. It was promoted to a full station and renamed Higashi-Kushiro on 11 November 1928, simultaneously becoming the official origin point of the Senmō Main Line. The present station building dates from January 1957. Freight operations and the Rinkō Railway connection ended in stages from the 1960s through 1986, and JR Hokkaido inherited the station at the 1987 JNR privatisation. Station-master duties were converted to programmable route control and the station unstaffed on 15 March 1994.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Higashi-Kushiro is the easternmost junction station in Japan where multiple railway lines meet — the Nemuro Main Line and the Senmō Main Line cross here, with through services continuing 1.9 km to terminate at Kushiro.