History
Kawara Station opened on 1 April 1915 as Kami-Kawara Station (上香春駅) on the private Kokura Railway. The Kokura Railway was nationalised on 1 May 1943, becoming part of the first-generation Soeda Line, and the station was renamed Kawara at the same time. The 1960 line restructuring made the Kawara-Soeda section the second-generation Soeda Line and the Jōno-Gotōji-Yoake route the Hitahikosan Line. Parcel handling ended in February 1984, the station was destaffed two weeks later, and freight handling ended in November 1986. With the 1 April 1987 privatisation of JNR the station passed to JR Kyushu. The original station building burned down on 10 September 1995 and a replacement opened in March 1996. The station code is JI11.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
From 1935 to 2004 the Asano (later Nippon) Cement plant just west of the station ran a dedicated spur with D51 steam and DD51 diesel locomotives shuttling bulk cement to Mojikō and Higashi-Kokura; cement freight stopped in October 1986 and the plant closed in 2004.