History
Kamaishi Station opened on 17 September 1939 in the city of Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture. The Kamaishi Line began operations there on 11 October 1944, and the Miyako Line later established it as a terminal on 27 February 1972. Today it is a junction served by JR East's Kamaishi Line and the third-sector Sanriku Railway Rias Line. The 11 March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami suspended several services into the station; the Minami-Rias section between Yoshihama and Kamaishi resumed on 5 April 2014, and the Yamada Line reopened on 23 March 2019 under Sanriku Railway operation, completing the unified Rias Line. The station has a Midori no Madoguchi staffed ticket office.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Notes
Kamaishi is a junction that connects JR East's Kamaishi Line with the Sanriku Railway Rias Line — itself stitched together in 2019 from the former Minami-Rias, JR Yamada and Kita-Rias lines after the 2011 tsunami.