History
Shirahama Station opened on 20 December 1933 as Shirahamaguchi Station (白浜口駅) when the Kisei West Line was extended south from Kii-Tanabe to Kii-Tomida. Freight handling ended on 15 January 1961, and the station was renamed Shirahama on 1 March 1965. The current steel-framed station building, built by the JNR Tennōji Management Bureau for ¥200 million, was completed on 1 October 1985. With the 1 April 1987 privatisation of JNR the station passed to JR West, and ICOCA acceptance began on 17 December 2016 via dedicated card readers. The 2-island 4-track layout was renumbered with platform 0 in March 2008. Shirahama serves as the gateway to the historic Shirahama hot-spring resort and is the southern turnaround for most "Kuroshio" limited expresses.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
From June through August each year, station staff, rental-car clerks, and kiosk staff wear aloha shirts — a 1980s tourism tie-in stemming from the local Shirara-hama beach's sister-beach pact with Waikiki in Hawaii.