If the train is JR Kyushu's Dc72 (which I came across when writing the Hump-Nosed Trains diary), you must be in Kyushu/Japan? At any rate, when I check JR Kyushu's English train fares page, prices are given for specific relations with km distances displayed, but the pricing is clearly zoned -- for example, 1080 yen for normal trains in the 50-60 km range. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
On the ticket pricing: The distance spectrum appears to be approximately zonned. But as you notice from table prices, they do not give a single distance/price table. The prices are zonned from each individual station - usually, the same price holds for a few consecutive stops (of a local train). So there are fewer distinct prices than (near enough) destinations. I suppose that they adjust zonning for all directions from a single station simultaneously, so to need a "finite" total number of buttons at that station. I can imagine a bright newcommer, or a veteran JR emploee, solving this puzzle of regional price adjustment :-)
On internet, I found this example of a ticket vending machine (in Hiroshima):
KIHA 71 and KIHA 72
So "キハ" reads "kiha"? Could it be the abbrevation of a literal translation of "diesel car"? Because the Japanese sites I browsed two months ago often used the latter, abbreviated "DC", sometimes it is even written on the vehicles like on this Dc/KIHA/キハ58:
*Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
