The station building, located on the east side of the tracks, is a modern concrete structure that houses a waiting area, an automatic ticket vending machine and staffed ticket window.

Separate from this, another bridge, served by elevators and known as the Kokubu Station East-West Free Passage allows pedestrians to access the streets on both sides of the tracks.

[5][6] The station was opened on 24 November 1929 by Japanese Government Railways (JGR) as the eastern terminus of the then Kokuto-West Line (国都西線) which it had laid from Nishi-Kokubu (now Hayato).

On 6 December 1932, the entire stretch of track from Kokura through Kokubu to Kagoshima was redesignated as 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.