History
Saza Station opened on 27 December 1931 as Sasa Station, when the Sasebo Railway built a branch from Yotsuyubi on its existing Sasebo-Usunoura line. A new line from Sasa to Sechibaru opened on 24 October 1933, transferred from a private mining railway. The Sasebo Railway was nationalised on 1 October 1936 and the station name was changed from Sasa to Saza, retaining the same kanji 佐々. On 1 March 1945 the route was reorganised so that Saza became a junction of the Matsuura and Usunoura lines, though Usunoura service ended on 26 December 1971. Control passed to JR Kyushu at the privatisation of Japanese National Railways on 1 April 1987, and on 1 April 1988 the station transferred to the third-sector Matsuura Railway. The ground-level station has two platforms and three tracks.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
When the Sasebo Railway was nationalised in 1936 the station's reading was changed from "Sasa" to "Saza" without altering the kanji 佐々, a rare instance of a name change in pronunciation alone.