What Hibiya Park is
In the Edo period this ground was covered with the mansions of feudal lords, and in the early Meiji years it was an army parade ground. Designed by the forestry scientist Dr Seiroku Honda, Hibiya Park opened on June 1, 1903. It was Japan's first Western-style park: Western flower beds with tulips and pansies, which most visitors had never seen, laid out alongside Japanese ponds and stone walls.
Today the park is open all day and free to enter. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is rebuilding it area by area, aiming to finish by 2033, the park's 130th year. In the city's plan, the Great Fountain and the small music stage around it are due back around 2027. The Hibiya Yaon, the open-air concert hall that was a landmark of Japanese rock and folk, closed at the end of September 2025 and is being rebuilt, with a new hall planned around 2029. Hibiya Public Hall is also closed for lengthy earthquake-proofing work. Dates can change, so check the park's notices.
What to see
Coming in from the Hibiya crossing, the first thing you meet is Shinji-ike, a pond kept from the moat of Edo Castle, with the rough stone walls of the old Hibiya Mitsuke gate, built in the early Edo period. Next to it is the First Flower Bed, the park's original Western garden, with the pelican fountain that has stood there since 1953.
In the middle of the park, the Kubikake Icho is a ginkgo thought to be 400 to 500 years old. In 1902 it stood in the way of road works at the Hibiya crossing, and Dr Honda saved it by moving it about 450 metres, saying he would stake his neck on it surviving, which is where the name, the 'neck-staking ginkgo', comes from. Beside it, Matsumoto-ro, a restaurant with a mansard roof, opened in 1903 along with the park. Further in, Kumogata pond has the crane fountain that has been a symbol of the park since it opened, and its trees colour well in autumn.
Shibaniwa Hiroba, the former Second Flower Bed, reopened in 2024 as a lawn you are free to walk and sit on, and Nireno-ki Hiroba, the elm tree square, is where many events set up their stalls.
- Construction fences move as the works go on. The park's map and notices online show which paths are open.
- The park service centre lends wheelchairs free of charge.
The year at Hibiya Park
Spring brings cherry blossoms and then azaleas on Tsutsuji-yama, the small hill near Matsumoto-ro. Usually in late May or early June, the Hibiya Music Festival puts on two days of free concerts across the park, Tokyo Midtown Hibiya and the Tokyo International Forum. Through the warmer months the park hosts food fairs of many kinds, from meat festivals to fairs for regions of Japan, most of them free to enter with food paid per dish. Oktoberfest has also been held here in some past years, though it now usually sets up in Shiba Park and Toyosu.
In October the Hibiya Park Gardening Show fills the lawns with display gardens, container gardens and hanging baskets from a public contest, and the park's own event, Hibiya Park Terrace, brings workshops, markets and outdoor art. In late October and early November the Tokyo International Film Festival takes over the cinemas around Hibiya. The ginkgo trees turn yellow in late November, and in recent years the area around Shinji-ike has been lit up in the evenings in late autumn. In December, Hibiya Park Terrace returns with a Christmas edition and a market. The big Tokyo Christmas Market began here in 2015 but has since moved to other parks, so check where it is each season.
- Most food fairs here take cash or tickets bought at a booth. Bring coins and 1,000-yen notes.
- Weekday lunchtimes are quiet at events; weekend afternoons are the busiest.
Timing, crowds and etiquette
On weekdays Hibiya Park is a lunchtime park: office workers from Kasumigaseki and Marunouchi fill the benches between noon and one. Mornings and late afternoons are calm. On event weekends the paths around the stalls get crowded, but the park is big enough that a few minutes' walk takes you back to quiet lawns.
Smoking is only allowed at marked spots, dogs must be on a lead, and you take your rubbish with you. A picnic is easy: the food halls of the department stores in Ginza and Yurakucho are a few minutes away, and Shibaniwa Hiroba is the obvious place to sit. The park's official X and Instagram accounts post event dates and closures first.
- Shinji-ike and the First Flower Bed are best in the morning light, before the lunch crowd.
- If an event says 雨天中止, it is cancelled in rain. Check its page on wet days.
Getting there and nearby
Hibiya Station (Hibiya, Chiyoda and Toei Mita lines) has exits A10 and A14 right at the park, and Kasumigaseki Station (Marunouchi and Chiyoda lines) exit B2 opens onto its west side. Sakuradamon Station on the Yurakucho Line is about five minutes away, and JR Yurakucho Station about eight.
Tokyo Midtown Hibiya, the tower across Hibiya-dori that opened in 2018, has a free terrace garden on its sixth floor, Park View Garden, open from 8am, with a wide view down over the park. The Imperial Palace Outer Garden begins just across the road to the north, past the moat, and Sakuradamon gate is a short walk. The theatres of Hibiya, including the Takarazuka Theater and the Nissay Theatre, are on the park's east side, Ginza is a few minutes' walk beyond them, and Marunouchi's Naka-dori, lit up in winter, is a short walk north.
