History
Iwata Station opened on 1899-06-05 as an infill stop between Tabuse and Shimada on the San'yō Railway, in what is now Iwata, Hikari City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. The San'yō Railway was nationalised in 1906 and the line became the Sanyō Main Line in 1909. The current station building was completed on 1937-03-31. In 1934 the line was briefly reclassified as the Yanai Line when the new Iwakuni - Kushigahama route opened, then returned to the Sanyō Main Line in 1944. Freight ended in 1962 and parcels in 1984. JR West took over at the 1987 privatisation, the station was contracted out from 1996, and locally contracted to Yamato (later Hikari City) from 2004. ICOCA service began on 2022-03-12 and the station was destaffed from 2022-10-01.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
The 1937 station building remains in service, while one of the two platforms — the middle track of the former island arrangement — is no longer used.