In 1948, he took a position as a professor of theory at Tōhō Gakuen School of Music, working there through 1955; he also taught at Ochanomizu Women's College in 1952, remaining there until 1959.

He began incorporating elements of serialism and musique concrete in the 1950s, and wrote for increasingly larger orchestral forces.

Shibata accepted a professorship at Tokyo University of the Arts in 1959, where he remained until 1969, and while there his compositions incorporated aspects of aleatory music.

From 1973 he composed theater works which combined elements of Japanese folk music with European-derived song structures.

Shibata also write extensively on music history and theory, and was an editor of The New Grove's Japanese edition.