History
Kōwa Station opened on 1 August 1935 as a stop on the Chita Railway, which was absorbed into Meitetsu on 1 February 1943. Freight handling ended in fiscal 1970. A new station-with-shopping building opened on 7 April 1979 housing Meitetsu Store Kōwa, and automatic fare gates followed in May 1987. The Tranpass magnetic card system arrived on 14 July 2006 and the building was rebranded as PaleMarché Kōwa on 20 March 2008. Manaca smart cards became usable on 11 February 2011, replacing Tranpass on 29 February 2012, and the station moved to special-duty staffing on 30 September 2023.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Where the English and Japanese sources differ, this account follows the Japanese source.
Notes
Kōwa is the southern terminus of Meitetsu's Kōwa Line and a five-minute walk from the Kōwa Port high-speed ferry terminal — making it the rail gateway to Himakajima and Shinojima for travellers heading from Nagoya to the islands of Mikawa Bay.