History
Hōsono Station opened on 4 June 1898 as a stop on the privately built Kansai Railway between Nagao and the now-abolished Shin-Kizu. Nationalisation on 1 October 1907 placed it under state control, and the line was renamed the Sakuranomiya Line in 1909 before being absorbed into the Katamachi Line on 15 November 1913. Freight handling ended in 1960 and the station was destaffed in 1970. JR West took over on 1 April 1987 with the JNR privatisation, and the Gakkentoshi-Line nickname followed in March 1988. The current elevated station building, including the footbridge linking the adjacent Kintetsu Shin-Hōsono Station, was completed on 13 September 1994. ICOCA acceptance began on 1 November 2003 and station numbering JR-H20 followed in March 2018.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
From 1972 to 1992 Hōsono was officially unstaffed for ticketing but kept on-site operations crew — passengers found a quiet, almost-abandoned station building with trains still being routed by hand.