History
Bitchū-Kōjiro Station opened on 25 October 1928 with the full opening of the Government Railways' Hakubi Line between Bitchū-Kawamo and Adachi, although train operation through the station did not begin until 25 November 1928. On 10 February 1930 the Sanshin Line opened to Yagami and the station became a junction; initially many Sanshin services terminated at Bitchū-Kōjiro rather than running through to nearby Niimi. On 1 July 1937 the Sanshin Line was renamed and became part of the Geibi Line. Freight and parcel services were discontinued on 1 October 1971 and the station was de-staffed. The station became part of JR West on 1 April 1987 at the privatisation of Japanese National Railways. In January 2001 the wooden station building was demolished, leaving only its torii-style gate; a small waiting room was installed in February. The torii gate was itself demolished in August 2022, and a simple new station-building-cum-waiting-room came into service in December 2022. The station is the formal northern terminus of the Geibi Line, although all line passenger trains continue to Niimi via the Hakubi Line.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
Bitchū-Kōjiro Station was a location in the 1977 horror film 'Yatsuhakamura' (The Village of Eight Graves). When the public toilet was demolished alongside the old wooden station building in 2022, passengers were asked to use train-onboard toilets instead, an unusual notice for any working JR station.