Tokyo First Middle School was established on 26 September 1878 in Tokyo's
Hongō-ku; soon after, it moved to
Kanda-ku, and moved several more times in the next two decades. The school came to attract students not just from within Japan, but overseas as well; in 1904, out of 50 students granted scholarships by Korea's
Joseon dynasty for
overseas study, 44 of them enrolled at Tokyo First Middle School. However, they were all expelled due to a protest they organised in 1905 over the signing of the
Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905, which effectively made the
Korean Empire a protectorate of the
Empire of Japan. Later, they were permitted to re-enroll the following year. After
World War II, Tokyo First Middle School went through a number of changes; it officially changed its name to Hibiya High School on 26 January 1950, and began
admitting female students in April of the same year. Its first coeducational class enrolled 300 boys and 100 girls. In common with the rest of the Tokyo public school system, its prestige declined during the early 1970s. Until 1976, at least 20 graduates were admitted to the University of Tokyo each year, down from the peak of 193 graduates in 1964, but according to one account, the school had "dropped out of the spotlight altogether". In 2006, 12 students gained admission to the University of Tokyo, and two years later, that figure more than doubled to 28. The current number of students in Hibiya High school is around 1600. == Exchange programs ==