Sotaro

Known weekday departures: 3/day · Known Sat & holiday departures: 3/day

First / last known departure (weekday): 6:23 / 20:35

Busiest hour (known departures): 6:00–7:00 (2)

0:00 ─ 23:00

Figures are the departures known from the timetable data, not a count of today's actual service.

Timetable data as of 2 May 2026 (retrieved in spring/summer 2026).

• JR Nippo Line: Shigeoka ⇄ Ichitana

Sōtarō opened on 15 December 1923 as a Railway Ministry signal box at the point where the Hōshū Main Line, building south from Kokura, met the Miyazaki Main Line building north from Miyazaki; the joined route was redesignated the Nippō Main Line on the same day. The signal box was upgraded to a full station on 1 March 1947, and after baggage handling ended in 1972 it became unstaffed. Located 231.0 km from Kokura in the city of Saiki, Ōita, it passed to JR Kyushu at privatisation on 1 April 1987. The remote two-platform mountain station has long seen only a handful of trains; as of the 2024 timetable just one southbound and two northbound services call each day.

Sōtarō is one of Japan's archetypal 'hikyō-eki' — fewer than one boarding per day in fiscal 2015 and only three scheduled stops in the 2024 timetable — yet it is also a special stop on JR Kyushu's tourist train 36 plus 3 on its Saturday 'Green Route' run, where passengers may step down onto the platform during the halt although boarding and alighting are not permitted.