History
Minamichōkai Station began service in 1951 as the Chōkai temporary passenger stop of the Japanese National Railways Uetsu Main Line in what is now the city of Sakata, Yamagata, and was upgraded to a full station under the name Minamichōkai on 16 January 1952. Parcel handling ended on 1 October 1972, leaving the station unattended. With the privatisation of JNR on 1 April 1987 it passed to JR East. On 1 April 2010 the managing station was transferred from Kisakata to Ugo-Honjō. By March 2023 the second platform on the opposite side of the building had been taken out of use, and the connecting footbridge was closed in July 2024.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Where the English and Japanese sources differ, this account follows the Japanese source.
Notes
Minamichōkai began life in 1951 as the Chōkai temporary stop (鳥海仮乗降場) and was upgraded to a full station the following year; it has been unstaffed since 1972, and its second platform was withdrawn from service in 2023.