History
Abira opened on 11 October 1902 as a general station of the Hokkaido Coal & Railway Muroran Line, between Hayakita and Oiwake; the station building was provided through donations by the landowner Hashiguchi Kōji and Hayashi Umegorō. The line was nationalised on 1 October 1906 and given the name Muroran Main Line on 12 October 1909. The station building was rebuilt between May and July 1912, again in 1943, and the present building was placed in service on 1 April 1982. From around December 1954 a private siding to the Self-Defence Forces' Abira Garrison ammunition and fuel depots was laid in. Freight handling was limited to siding traffic on 15 March 1971, all freight and parcel handling ended on 15 May 1980 (the station also becoming unstaffed under kan'i itaku), and from 1 April 1987 the station has been operated by JR Hokkaido. Simply-managed status was abolished and the station became completely unstaffed in July 2001.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
Although the station name was originally to be 'Shiabira' after the local place name (from Ainu 'si-apira', meaning 'main current of the Apira river'), the present 'Abira' was chosen because it sounded better as a station name; the village name 'Abira' followed and stuck.