History
Haramizu Station opened on 25 July 1920 as a new infill stop on the Ministry of Railways' Miyaji Light Railway Line between Sanrigi and Higo-Ōzu. With the line's renaming on 2 December 1928, it became a station of the Hōhi Main Line. On 1 April 1962 the station was placed under business entrustment (to Nihon Kōtsū Kankōsha), and cargo handling was abolished on 1 October the same year. Parcel handling was abolished on 1 October 1971 and the station became unstaffed. With the breakup and privatisation of JNR on 1 April 1987, control passed to JR Kyushu. The SUGOCA IC card was introduced on 1 December 2012. In 2024 part of the down-direction platform was widened from 2 to 3 metres.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
Haramizu has seen passenger numbers climb sharply since fiscal 2022 thanks to the development of the Semiconductor Techno Park nearby, which includes Sony Semiconductor's Kyushu Kumamoto plant and JASM, the Japanese subsidiary of TSMC. Its switches are single-throw, but because the signalling system is not configured for it the station does not operate as a single-track-through (一線スルー) layout.