History
Higo-Ikura opened on 3 April 1935 as an additional stop on the existing Kagoshima Main Line track, placed at what is today the Kumamoto-side end of the platforms. Freight handling ended on 1 October 1961, station services were outsourced from 1 October 1971 and parcel handling ceased on 1 February 1984 before the station was made unstaffed on 14 March 1985. JR Kyushu inherited the station on 1 April 1987. The station was reduced to simple agency operation on 1 April 2010. The 1942 wooden station building was replaced when a new building was completed alongside it on 3 March 2012, and SUGOCA IC-card acceptance began on 1 December 2012.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Notes
When the station was named in 1935, Japanese National Railways already had an Ikura Station (using a different kanji) on the Hakubi Line — to avoid confusion, the new station was prefixed with "Higo," the old name of Kumamoto Province.