It is the largest and busiest railway terminal in Kyushu, and is a gateway to other cities in Kyushu for travelers coming from Honshu by rail travel.

The new station building has a Hankyu Department Store, its first branch store in Kyushu, as a tenant, as well as other first-in-Kyushu branch retailers including Tokyu Hands.

The subway station's symbol mark is a bolt of cloth with the traditional hakata-ori (ja:博多織) pattern "Kenjō Hakata"(献上博多).

Hakata-ori is a traditional woven silk textile of Hakata.

In fiscal 2016, the station was used by an average of 121,370 passengers daily (boarding passengers only), and it ranked 1st among the busiest stations of JR Kyushu.