History
Rikuchū-Kawai Station opened on 30 November 1933 on the Japanese Government Railways' Yamada Line in what is now Miyako, Iwate, and a locomotive depot operated on the grounds for its first year. Storm damage closed the station from 26 November 1946 to 21 November 1954. Freight handling ended in September 1982 and parcel service that November, when the stop was destaffed and switched to a simplified franchise managed by Kawai Taxi. JNR's 1987 privatisation passed the station to JR East. The franchise ended on 22 April 2018 and the stop became fully unstaffed; management transferred from Miyako to Morioka the following year when Miyako moved to Sanriku Railway.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
From 1982 until 2018 the ticket window was franchised to Kawai Taxi, whose office still occupies the former stationmaster's room in the building, an arrangement that survived JNR privatisation by three decades.