Hibiya High School

is a public high school located in Nagata-chō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was founded in 1878 as the . 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". History 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. 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. The Meiji era government and Tokyo Imperial University requested the thickened as a part route to Tokyo Imperial University though Tokyo First did not lay weight at first on the side of going on to school. 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. By 1918, only four decades after its foundation, Tokyo First had already become the first step on the "escalator course" which students expected would lead them to Tokyo Imperial University. 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.