History
Nozato Station opened on 26 July 1894 as part of the Banta Railway's section between Himeji and Teramae. The line passed to Sanyō Railway in 1903 and was nationalised on 1 December 1906, becoming part of the Bantan Line in 1909. Freight was discontinued in 1964 and the station was unstaffed from 1972. On 1 October 1984 the station was moved 400 metres north onto a new elevated structure. JNR privatisation transferred it to JR West on 1 April 1987. A staffed Midori-no-Madoguchi ticket office operated from 2003, but the window service closed on 31 March 2025 and the station became fully unattended the next day.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The local Harima-no-kuni Fudoki recorded the area as "Ōno no sato" — "village of the great plain". The opening "Ō" was dropped over time, leaving the modern place name Nozato.