Kami-Arita Station

Kami-Arita Station (上有田駅) is a passenger railway station located in the town of Arita, Saga Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by JR Kyushu.

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.

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

 * Japan National Route 35
 * Arita Ceramic Art Museum