History
Hirafu Station opened on 1904-10-15 as an intermediate stop on the private Hokkaido Railway during its extension from Hakodate north toward Otaru. The Hokkaido Railway was nationalised on 1907-07-01, and on 1909-10-12 the station became part of the newly designated Hakodate Main Line. Freight handling ended in 1974, baggage handling in 1982, and the same year it was unstaffed; the original passing-loop arrangement was removed in 1985, leaving a single side platform. With the privatisation of JNR on 1987-04-01 control passed to JR Hokkaido, and in June 2023 the station was named among 42 on the JR Hokkaido network slated for abolition owing to low ridership.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The former station office at Hirafu has been converted into a guesthouse with separate cottages beside the platform — it is the only station in Japan whose building is itself operated as a minshuku.