The outskirts of this district are reclaimed from the ocean, and the "hibi" of Hibiya is derived from the facility for the laver of nori made of bamboo, whose name is also "hibi". This effectively makes the word an ateji, kanji characters used to phonetically represent native Japanese words.

In the era of Tokugawa shogunate, the Tokugawa bakufu worked out of Edo castle and the area surrounding Edo castle was developed and landfilled. The fishing village then became an urban area where many Daimyō lived.

On September 5, 1905, Hibiya Park was the initial site of the Hibiya riots, which expanded into a citywide riot, triggered by the terms of the Treaty of Portsmouth which ended the Russo-Japanese War (1904−1905).^[1]

After the end of the Meiji Restoration Hibiya, the city of Tokyo had become a modern city for there were many buildings including the Imperial Hotel (Tokyo's first western hotel), Rokumeikan, Tokyo city hall and the Tokyo Club. In the 1930s, the first electric traffic light in Japan appeared at a Hibiya crossing point. The once fashionable district has changed into a business street.

• Hibiya Station, a railway station
• Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line, a Tokyo Metro subway line that runs through the area
• Tokyo Midtown Hibiya, a mixed use building overlooking Hibiya Park
• Yurakucho, an administrative district covering the entire Hibiya area
• Hibiya Godzilla Square – Square in Tokyo, Japan

35°41′38.41″N 139°45′12.94″E / 35.6940028°N 139.7535944°E / 35.6940028; 139.7535944