It was well known in the 1950s and 1960s for the large proportion of graduates who gained admission to the prestigious University of Tokyo; though it suffered a decline in the 1970s, as of 2005 it was once again being referred to as the "best public high school in Japan".

[1] Its establishment was the result of the Meiji Restoration drive to modernise the model of education in order to catch up with Western Europe and the United States.

[3][7] In 1993, a single student from Hibiya High School gained admission to the University of Tokyo.

Hibiya High school is also known for its international exchange programs with students spending from two weeks to a full academic year studying overseas.

As a public high school Hibiya High School also continues to enroll students from a wide variety of backgrounds including native level Japanese speaking students of Chinese, Indonesian, Australian, Korean, European and North American heritage.