History
Sembon Station opened on 24 March 1934 as part of the Ministry of Railways’ Himetsu Line extension between Harima-Shingū and Mikazuki. Later that year the operating designation changed to Himetsu-East, and in 1936 the consolidated route was renamed the Kishin Line. Freight services were withdrawn in 1962 and parcels handling in 1971, after which the station became unstaffed. The station building was rebuilt in 1979. With the privatisation of Japanese National Railways on 1 April 1987 the station passed to JR West. The single side platform retains traces of the earlier two-platform layout, and IC-card support does not extend west of Sembon toward Tsuyama.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The station owes its existence to a Taishō-era rivalry between the villages of Higashi-Kurisu and Nishi-Kurisu, which both lobbied so hard for a stop that the railway eventually opened one in each village.