[1] With the privatization of Japanese National Railways (JNR) on 1 April 1987, the station came under the control of JR Hokkaido.

They continued by saying that the reason the station had not closed yet is that is it was still being used by a few residents and it showed that Japan is a society that does not give up, even for one person.

The most frequently cited origin of the story is a Facebook post in English by the Chinese television network CCTV News on 8 January.

[9] The post said that the station was scheduled to close three years ago, but when JR discovered that a young girl was using it, they changed their mind and waited for her to graduate on 26 March and the train ran on a timetable based on when the girl needed to go to school and back.

Most of the information on the post is actually not accurate as there is no known causality between the fact that Harada used the station and it staying open.

Other news outlets tried to debunk the news, like The Straits Times that mistakenly suggest that Harada was taking the train at the station along with ten other schoolmates,[12] while others properly pointed out that the other students were already on the train.