History
The station opened on 8 November 1908 as Makata Station when the government railway extended the line from Matsue to Yasugi, joining the San'in Main Line in 1909. A freight branch to Makata-kō opened on 1 April 1930 and closed on 1 April 1975. Freight handling ended in 1961 and parcel handling in 1972, when the station was destaffed. It was renamed Higashi-Matsue on 1 April 1973, with freight handling restarted as Matsue's freight workload was transferred here. The station joined JR West on 1 April 1987 and ICOCA service began on 17 December 2016. Scheduled freight trains ceased on 16 March 1996, and the JR Freight station was formally closed on 1 April 2015.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Notes
Since the closure of Iwami Station in 2013, the adjacent off-rail container terminal here is the only operating JR Freight facility in Shimane Prefecture.