History
Sakata Station opened on 1914-12-24 as the temporary terminus of the Railway Bureau's Sakata Line in what is now Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture. A freight branch to the harbour at Saikatakō (later Sakata-kō) followed in 1915. The station was reassigned to the Rikuu West Line in 1917 and to the Uetsu Main Line under its present name in 1925. The station building was rebuilt in 1934 and again on 1960-12-15. Freight handling ceased on 1975-03-10 and the station passed to JR East at the 1987-04-01 privatisation. The Midori no Madoguchi ticket office closed on 2022-02-28, replaced by a staffed reservation kiosk, and a renewed station building and forecourt were completed in 2024.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
In 2015 a driving wheel of a Class 9600 steam locomotive previously preserved at Hiyoriyama Park was relocated to the platform as a monument marking the station's centenary.