History
Aburatsu Station opened on 19 April 1937 as the new northern terminus of the Shibushi Line, which the Railway Ministry had been extending north from Ōdōtsu. The original Aburatsu Station on the separate Aburatsu Line was renamed Moto-Aburatsu Station two weeks before the new station opened. Aburatsu became a through stop on 28 October 1941 when the line was extended north to Kitagō, and a short freight branch was opened the same day to Moto-Aburatsu, which closed in 1960. Freight handling ended in November 1982 and baggage handling in March 1985. The site sits 46.0 kilometres south of Minami-Miyazaki on the Nichinan Line in Iwasaki, Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture. JR Kyushu took over on 1 April 1987.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-10.
Notes
Because Nichinan has long hosted the Hiroshima Toyo Carp's spring training camp, in February 2018 the station building was repainted red on the suggestion of local Carp supporters and given the nickname 'Carp Aburatsu Station'; the interior was overhauled in matching style in February 2022 through a project by the Nichinan Obi Cedar Design Association.