History
Minami-Kurume Station opened on 24 December 1928 as one of the original intermediate stations on the first section of the Kyudai Main Line, a Japanese Government Railways project linking Kurume with Chikugo-Yoshii. The station, in the city of Kurume in Fukuoka Prefecture, sits 4.9 km from the Kurume terminus. Freight and parcel handling were abolished on 15 February 1984, after which the station was operated by a JR Kyushu subsidiary. Privatisation of Japanese National Railways on 1 April 1987 transferred control to JR Kyushu. SUGOCA IC-card use began on 1 December 2012; the station became fully unstaffed on 12 March 2022, and the station building was rebuilt in March 2024.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
The original 1928 station building's entrance ceiling displays a hexagram ornament whose meaning is disputed: local theories include marking the Kurume Army 24th Infantry Brigade on military maps, or a traditional Japanese protective charm for soldiers returning from war — the JGSDF garrison at Kurume rejects the first explanation.