History
Nekomata Station opened on 16 November 1953 when Kansai Electric Power obtained a local-railway licence for the Kurobe Gorge route, originally serving construction workers and staff at the Kurobe River No. 2 Power Plant nearby. On 4 May 1971 the Kurobe Gorge Railway was established and the station passed to it, with full operations from 1 July 1971. The platform was historically inaccessible to the general public, as it served as a working station for power-station staff. Following damage to the Kanetsuri Bridge in the 1 January 2024 Noto earthquake, the line was cut short at Nekomata and on 5 October 2024 the platform reopened to general passengers as the turn-back point, with a temporary 100-metre platform replacing the previous 65-metre one. The station sits at 358 metres above sea level in Kurobe, Toyama Prefecture.
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
Nekomata is the only railway station in Japan whose name contains the kanji for 'cat' (猫), and after opening to general passengers in 2024 the Kurobe Gorge Railway appointed a cat as the station's 'honorary assistant'.