History
Gumma-Yawata Station opened on 15 October 1924 after a two-decade campaign by Yawata-mura residents for a stop on the Takasaki–Yokokawa government line; the village mayor donated the land. Early traffic was light, and locals opened a freight-forwarding business to drum up custom. Freight handling ended on 15 December 1962. JR East took over from JNR on 1 April 1987. The second-generation station building entered service in March 2004, and the station joined the Tokyo Suburban Area with Suica acceptance on 14 March 2009. On 26 October 2024, for the station's centenary, students of nearby Yawata schools designed stained-glass-style film panels for the building's windows.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The "Welcome Home" and "Have a Good Day" daruma sculptures at the station entrance reflect Gumma-Yawata's role as the nearest railway access to Shōrinzan Daruma-ji, the temple at the centre of the Takasaki Daruma industry.