History
Araya Station is on the JR East Uetsu Main Line in Akita City, Akita Prefecture, 265.7 kilometres from the line's terminus at Niitsu. It opened on 22 February 1920 as a station of the Japanese government railways serving what was then the town of Araya in Kawabe District. Freight handling other than dedicated-siding traffic ended on 1 October 1964, parcel service on 14 March 1985, and all wagonload freight on 1 November 1986; sidings once ran from the station to a national-food warehouse and to the Jūjō Pulp factory (formerly Jūjō Paper Akita Plant), which closed in March 1986. The site was absorbed into JR East on 1 April 1987, contracted-operator staffing began on 1 April 2003, and rapid services have called here since 26 March 2016.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
In June 2016 a small library opened inside the station's waiting room, and in 2019 a Mori-yama Zoo-themed art panel was mounted on the platform-side exterior wall — modest features of a comprehensive 2016 station refresh.