Seiryu Miharashi Station

Many local rural Japanese railways, struggling to cover their costs, have resorted to unique ploys to bring in tourists. Perhaps the most famous of these is the cat stationmaster at Kishi Station in Wakayama Prefecture, however many others have sprung up over time. The Nishikigawa Railway, for instance, has opened up a special station accessible only by train for passengers to appreciate the Nishiki River's gorge.

While Seiryu Miharashi Station is not the only one in the world without any pedestrian entrances and exits, others exist for more utilitarian purposes, to facilitate the transfer of passengers from one train to another. This station, by contrast, only has one line on one track. Supplies for construction thus had to be brought in by rail.

Opening in 2019 after delays due to a flood, the station was paid for primarily by a 100 million-yen subsidy meant to attract visitors from a nearby U.S. military base. However, the project has been criticized for bringing in far less passengers than expected, at less than a thousand compared to the 4,600 projected in reports.