History
Funao Station opened on 5 February 1922 as a freight station, established when the Kyushu Sangyo Railway (later Sangyo Cement Railway) constructed its track between Funao and Tatsugyō. Passenger service began on 15 July 1926 when the line was extended to Akasaka Coal Mine, making it a general station. The Sangyo Cement Railway was nationalised under wartime acquisition on 1 July 1943, at which point Funao became a station of the Gotōji Line. The station was destaffed on 1 February 1984, and JR Kyushu took over at the JNR breakup on 1 April 1987.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-24.
Notes
Funao was once thronged with locomotives shunting limestone wagons, and the older two-storey station building was famously coated white by cement-factory dust that settled across the yard — a sight well known to rail enthusiasts. The Aso Cement Tagawa Works and surrounding limestone mines are still in operation today, and the area around Funao Station remains almost entirely mine and factory grounds rather than housing.