History
Mitani Station is a JR West Yamaguchi Line stop in Atō Iginohigashibun Mitani, Yamaguchi, where some Super Oki limited express trains call. It opened on 28 April 1918 as the terminus when the JNR Yamaguchi Line was extended from Shinome, and became an intermediate station on 3 November 1918 when the line was extended further to Tokusa. Freight handling ended on 10 August 1971, parcel handling and staff were abolished on 1 February 1984, and JR West took over on 1 April 1987 with the JNR privatization. The original wooden station building was destroyed by an electrical fire on 16 May 2001 and JR West refused to rebuild it as unprofitable, so the former Atō Town installed a prefab building in late July 2001; a new permanent station building followed in 2010. The station became fully unstaffed on 20 May 2021 when its simple commissioned-agency operation was dropped.
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
When fire destroyed the original wooden station building in May 2001, JR West refused to rebuild it on profitability grounds, so the now-merged Atō Town stepped in and put up a prefabricated replacement at local expense within months — a permanent station building was only built nine years later, in 2010, with the local approach control kept outside the building both before and after.