History
Ōsumi-Ōkawara Station was opened on 1 November 1931 as the southern terminus of the Japanese Government Railways Kokuto-East Line, extending from Nishi-Miyakonojō. By December 1932 the Kokuto-East Line had been linked with adjacent lines so that through-traffic was established from Kokura through this station to Kagoshima, and on 6 December 1932 the entire route was redesignated the Nippō Main Line. Freight handling ended on 20 September 1962 and CTC introduction on 1 October 1979 made the station unstaffed. It passed to JR Kyushu on 1 April 1987 at privatisation, and a new log-cabin-style station building, built using locally grown cedar, opened on 27 March 2010.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
The 2010 station rebuild was paid for by Soo City rather than the railway: about 90 local residents joined a commemorative ride from Miyakonojō and 400 more attended a ceremony featuring children playing the gottan, a Satsuma three-stringed instrument, and a performance by the Sueyoshi Kishin Daiko drumming troupe.