History
Honai Station opened on 20 September 1943 as a signal point on the Japanese Government Railways' Shin'etsu Main Line and was promoted to a full station on 1 August 1949. Parcel handling ended on 1 October 1970, station staff were withdrawn, and the stop transitioned to simple contract operation. Control passed to JR East at the JNR breakup on 1 April 1987. The present station building entered service on 29 February 2000, the contract operation was discontinued and the station was fully destaffed on 31 October 2004, and Suica acceptance began on 21 January 2006. The two opposed ground-level platforms are connected by a footbridge, with the building facing platform 1.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
Honai sits exactly 100 rail-kilometres from the Shin'etsu Main Line terminus at Naoetsu, and a milepost on its platform marks the round number.