History
Satsuma-Matsumoto Station opened on 11 February 1954 as a petition station along the Kagoshima Main Line, 383.3 kilometres south of Mojikō. The village of Kami-Ijūin, which already had a station inconveniently far from its centre, lobbied repeatedly from 1949 for a new stop nearer its core; the entire construction cost was met by the village and its residents, and around 20,000 villager-days of volunteer labour went into the build. The line through the station was double-tracked in 1977 and 1980. The station became unstaffed on 1 April 2004 under rationalisation, and SUGOCA acceptance began in December 2012. JR Kyushu has run the station since the 1 April 1987 privatisation.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-22.
Notes
The 'Satsuma' prefix was attached at opening because the simpler name Matsumoto was already in use by another JNR station in the city of Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture, despite the different kanji writing.