History
Watari Station opened on 10 November 1897 on what was then Nippon Railway's Iwaki Line. The line was nationalised in November 1906 and redesignated as the Jōban Line on 12 October 1909. JR East assumed operation on 1 April 1987. In September 2008 the station building was reimagined to share its facade with the adjacent Yūrikan complex housing the Watari Town Library and local museum, giving the structure a faux-castle appearance. The 11 March 2011 Tōhoku tsunami devastated the Jōban Line south of here; trains turned back at Watari until the 16 March 2013 reopening to Hamayoshida and again on 10 December 2016 to Sōma. An east-side ticket gate and elevator were inaugurated on 23 March 2022 to improve barrier-free access.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Notes
Watari's castle-themed exterior, shared with the neighbouring Yūrikan museum-library complex, earned it a place in the 2002 "Top 100 Stations of Tōhoku" selection.