Naka-Shari

No publicly available departure data for this station.

Naka-Shari Station (station number B71) is on the JR Hokkaido Senmō Main Line in Shari, Hokkaido. It opened on 14 November 1929 as Sarumagawa Station (猿澗川駅) and was renamed Naka-Shari on 10 September 1950 — the name simply reflects its position between Shari (now Shiretoko-Shari) and Kami-Shari (now Kiyosato-cho) stations. According to Shari's Wikipedia article, Shari is the easternmost municipality of the Okhotsk Subprefecture, faces the Sea of Okhotsk, and shares the 25-km-wide, 65-km-long Shiretoko Peninsula with Rausu — the area containing the Shiretoko National Park, which was inscribed on the UNESCO World Natural Heritage list in 2005.

The Shari article describes how in 1977 the town launched Japan's first National-Trust-style citizen-funded land-acquisition drive, the "Shiretoko 100-Square-Metre Movement," buying back 860 hectares of former pioneer farmland to keep development out of the World Heritage area.