History
Hōkoku Station opened on 25 October 1928 with the Ministry of Railways' Hakubi Line extension from Bitchū-Kawamo to Adachi, though regular train operations through the new section did not begin until 25 November of that year. Goods handling ended on 1 October 1971, parcel handling on 1 February 1984, and the station was made unattended on 31 March 1984. With JNR's privatisation on 1 April 1987 it passed to JR West. ICOCA support began on 13 March 2021. The wooden station building dates from the 1928 opening and was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2014. The unattended station, station number JR-V15, lies in Takahashi, Okayama Prefecture, between a cliffside and the Takahashi River.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
There is no place called Hōkoku near the station — the name honours Yamada Hōkoku (1805–1877), a Bitchū-Matsuyama Han scholar known as the "Sage of Bitchū," making it Japan's first station to be officially named after a person, with locals arguing the name could also be read as a local geographic compound to overcome rail-ministry objections.