The designations KiHa 30, 35 and 36 stand for diesel railcars built for JNR between 1961 and 1966. They are all four-axle cars with a license-built Cummins diesel and hydraulic transmission to both axles of one bogie. Their bodies measure 20 meters in length and they have gangway doors at the ends.

The most numerous type is the KiHa 35 with 258 built. It has a cab at one end and a toilet. The 49 cars of type KiHa 36 also have one cab, but no toilet. 106 KiHa 30 were built with two cabs and no toilet. This makes a total of 413 cars. While the two-car KiHa 30 are optimized for single running, the others were generally used in sets of two to six cars.

The state railway companies retired these cars by 2012 and replaced them with types like the KiHa E130. After this, some remained in service in Japan with private companies like Kanto Railway and Mizushima Rinkai Railway. Some cars had been sold to the Philippines. There they are mostly operated as two-car sets, sometimes hauled by a locomotive due to severe grades.