History
Ōnojō Station traces its history to 10 June 1946 when the Ministry of Transport opened the Kasuga Signal Station to handle Allied-Occupation freight traffic. The signal stop was promoted to a full station on 1 October 1961 as Shirakibaru Station, with cargo handling for the US-military dedicated branch. Driver-handled freight ended in March 1974 and the site became a contract-staffed station. JR Kyushu took over at privatisation on 1 April 1987, and a local renaming campaign led to the change to Ōnojō Station on 11 March 1989 — distinguishing it from the nearby Nishitetsu Shirakibaru Station. The current overhead station building opened on 20 August 1990, and rapid services began stopping in March 2003.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
The station name combines three local references: "Kasuga" from a nearby shrine, "Shirakibaru" thought to derive from a settlement of immigrants from Silla in ancient Korea, and "Ōnojō" from the ancient mountain fortress for which the city is now named.