Kami-Arita Station
# Kami-Arita Station

Kami-Arita Station (上有田駅, Kami-Arita-eki) is a train station in Nakataru 1-chōme, Arita, Saga Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by JR Kyushu and is on the Sasebo Line.

## Lines

The station is served by the Sasebo Line and is located 25.7 km from the starting point of the line at Hizen-Yamaguchi. Only Sasebo Line local services stop at this station.

## Station layout

The station, which is unstaffed, consists of two staggered side platforms serving two tracks with a siding branching off track 2 and running on the other side of platform 2. The station building is an original Meiji-era timber structure built in 1909 when the station opened for passenger traffic. Access to the opposite side platform is by means of a footbridge.

The station is normally unstaffed but some types of tickets are available from a kan'i itaku agent outside the station. In addition, during the "Arita Pottery City", a major ceramic pottery fair held in the town of Arita during Golden Week, a ticket window with a POS machine would be set up.

* Arita Station during Golden Week 2017. The sign says "Arita Pottery City information centre".
* A view of the platforms and tracks. The siding can be seen to the far left.

## Adjacent stations

| ← | | Service | | → |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| Sasebo Line |||||
| Mimasaka | Mimasaka | Local | Arita | Arita |

## History

The private Kyushu Railway, in building a line to Nagasaki, had opened a track from Tosu to Saga and Takeo (today Takeo-Onsen) by 5 May 1895 and had expanded to Haiki by 10 July 1897. On 1 October 1989. the station was opened as an intermediate station on the existing track between Takeo-Onsen and Haiki. At the time it was named Nakataru (中樽) and was for freight only. When the Kyushu Railway was nationalized on 1 July 1907, Japanese Government Railways (JGR) took over control of the station. On 1 May 1909, passenger services commenced and the station was renamed Kami-Arita. On 12 October 1909, track from Tosu through Kami-Arita and Haiki to Nagasaki was designated the Nagasaki Main Line. On 1 December 1934, another route was given the designation Nagasaki Main Line and the official starting point of the Sasebo Line was moved to Hizen-Yamaguchi. As such, Kami-Arita became part of the Sasebo Line. With the privatization of Japanese National Railways (JNR), the successor of JGR, on 1 April 1987, control of the station passed to JR Kyushu.

## Passenger statistics

In fiscal 2015, there were a total of 39,518 boarding passengers, giving a daily average of 108 passengers.

## Environs

* National Route 35
* Arita art museum of ceramics porcelain
