History
Honkawachi Station opened as Hongawachi Signal Box on 1 October 1943 on the Japanese Government Railways' Nagasaki Main Line. It began handling passenger boardings around 1944 and was upgraded to a full passenger station on 1 June 1952, when the kana reading was changed from Hongawachi to Honkawachi while the kanji stayed the same. On 2 October 1972 the new Ichinuno bypass opened between Kikitsu and Urakami, and the older line through Honkawachi became the Nagayo branch. JNR's privatisation on 1 April 1987 passed the station to JR Kyushu, and on 9 March 2002 a regrade allowed the historic switchback operation to be eliminated.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
Honkawachi was one of the last switchback halts in western Japan; the points and tracks of the abandoned reversing manoeuvre remained on site until removal works began in late 2018.