In 1913, the had opened a line from northwards to Hirose (now closed). After the Miyazaki Prefectural Railway was nationalized on 21 September 1917,
Japanese Government Railways (JGR) undertook the subsequent extension of the track which it designated as the Miyazaki Main Line. Expanding north in phases, the track reached Nobeoka which was established as the northern terminus on 1 May 1922. It became a through-station on 29 October 1922 when the track was extended to . By 1923, the track had approached the southern terminus of the then Hoshū Line which JGR had been extending southwards from down the east coast of Kyushu to reach by March 1922. The link up between the two lines was achieved on 15 December 1923, and through traffic was thus established from Kokura through Nobeoka to . The entire stretch of track was then renamed the Nippō Main Line. With the privatization of
Japanese National Railways (JNR), the successor of JGR, on 1 April 1987, the station came under the control of JR Kyushu. A new station building, accompanied by a mixed-use commercial development, opened in August 2017. ==Passenger statistics==