Ōda (Kumamoto)

History

Ōda Station opened on 25 December 1899 on the line built by the Kyushu Railway, which was nationalised on 1 July 1907. Freight handling ended on 1 October 1961, baggage handling on 1 February 1984, and the station became unstaffed on 1 November 1986. Following the 1 April 1987 privatisation of Japanese National Railways, the station passed to JR Kyushu, now operating it as part of the Misumi (Amakusa-Misumi) Line. The city of Uto bought the station building and toilets from JR Kyushu in 2012, and the structure reopened in 2013 as the community café Ōda Retro Kan. In 2014 the wooden building was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property, and from 2022 the down A-Train limited express began making a stop here.

History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.

Notes

The wooden station building is the oldest in Kumamoto Prefecture and is run by a local NPO as the Ōda Retro Kan café-cum-ticket counter, opening as Café Retro Kan on weekend and holiday afternoons.