History
Karatsu Station opened on 1 December 1898 with the Karatsu Kogyo Railway's line to Yamamoto, which was extended to Kyūragi on 13 June 1899. The line was absorbed by the Kyushu Railway in February 1902 and then nationalised on 1 July 1907. In 1909 it was designated the Karatsu Line. The original ground-level station was rebuilt as an elevated structure on 1 October 1982 when the line was grade-separated, and on 22 March 1983 the rerouted Chikuhi Line shifted its eastern terminus from old Higashi-Karatsu Station to this station. SUGOCA service began on 13 March 2010 and the station was returned to direct JR Kyushu operation on 1 October 2023.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Notes
The 2016 figure-skating anime "Yuri!!! on Ice" used Karatsu Station as the model for the fictional Hasetsu Station that appears as the protagonist's hometown stop.