Iwate-Numakunai

Weekday departures: 53/day · Sat & holiday departures: 50/day

First / last departure (weekday): 5:57 / 22:44

Busiest hour: 18:00–19:00 (5)

0:00 ─ 23:00

Figures are typical departures in the timetable data, not a live service count.

Timetable data as of 17 April 2026 to 7 August 2026: the timetables behind these figures were retrieved on different dates.

• Iwate Galaxy Railway Line: Mido ⇄ Iwate-Kawaguchi
• Tohoku Shinkansen: Ninohe ⇄ Morioka

The station opened as Numakunai Station on 1 September 1891 on the Nippon Railway in what is now the town of Iwate, Iwate Prefecture. The Nippon Railway was nationalised on 1 November 1906, and the station became part of the Tōhoku Main Line when the government railway line names were established on 12 October 1909. While the Tōhoku Main Line was still non-electrified, the station was the point where auxiliary locomotives needed to assist trains over Jūsanbongi Pass were attached and detached; this role ended when the Morioka–Aomori section was double-tracked and electrified on 1 October 1968. With the 1 April 1987 JNR privatisation it passed to JR East. On 1 December 2002, when the Tōhoku Shinkansen was extended to Hachinohe, the station was renamed Iwate-Numakunai and became a Shinkansen stop; the parallel Tōhoku Main Line section here was concurrently transferred to the third-sector Iwate Ginga Railway Company.

In fiscal 2024, an average of 75 passengers boarded Shinkansen trains here each day, the lowest figure on any JR East shinkansen and only behind Oku-Tsugaru-Imabetsu and Kikonai across the entire shinkansen network.