History
Ibara Station, in the city of Ibara in Okayama Prefecture, opened on 11 January 1999 with the inauguration of the third-sector Ibara Railway's Ibara Line. The high-ceilinged glass station building was designed in the shape of the longbow of local hero Nasu no Yoichi. A staffed station and the line's largest hub, it shares its concourse with municipal facilities: a community hall on the east side hosts events and exhibitions while a denim retail store and museum opened in 2017, and a city tourist information office opened in 2018. The previous Igasa Railway Ibara station — 700 m to the north-northwest — closed when the new line opened and has been redeveloped as a bus centre.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The old Igasa Railway Ibara station sat 700 m northwest as a switchback; when the new Ibara Line was built, planners aligned its replacement station on the straight east-west axis of the former lines so trains could run through without reversing.