History
Izumi-Sotoasahikawa Station opened on 13 March 2021 as a JR East stop on the Ōu Main Line in Akita, the first new station in the prefecture since Iwakiminato in 2001. The gap of 7.1 km between Akita and Tsuchizaki had long been the longest first-stop spacing among Tohoku prefectural capitals, and the densely populated Izumi-Hightown district justified a citizen-petition station. Discussions between Akita City and JR East began on 31 July 2018 and were formalised in a 18 September 2018 agreement, with construction approved by the Tohoku District Transport Bureau on 18 January 2019. The name was settled on 20 February 2020 and the city paid all 2.07 billion yen in construction costs. Suica acceptance began on 27 May 2023.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Akita City projected 2,118 boardings a day at opening, but a February 2022 survey found weekday volumes of 1,124 and weekend of 510 — less than a third of the forecast.