History
Kitamata Station opened on 1 November 1931 as an intermediate stop on a newly extended section of the Kokuto East Line, then operated by Japanese Government Railways. By December 1932 the line had been joined to the wider Kyushu network, allowing through running from Kokura via Kitamata to Kagoshima, and the route was incorporated into the Nippō Main Line. Freight handling ended in 1961 and the station was made unstaffed in October 1979 when CTC signalling was introduced. The line through Kitamata was severed for six weeks by the August 1993 floods. With JNR's privatisation on 1 April 1987 the station passed to JR Kyushu, which still operates it in Soo, Kagoshima Prefecture.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.