The 24-year-old qualifier, who shares coach Mark Draper with Walton, raced through their match on Tuesday night, winning 6-3 6-2 in 72 minutes.
It ended a run of five local losses for Australian men at the Queensland Tennis Centre this week.
Aleksandar Vukic, James Duckworth, Alexei Popyrin, Dane Sweeny and Nick Kyrgios all lost their first-round matches at the Australian Open lead-in event.
Walton, ranked 77 in the world and a top-100 player for the last three years, was constantly under pressure on serve.
He won little more than half of the points when landing his first serve while Hijikata hammered 22 winners to Walton's 14.
Hijikata, who has an Australian Open wildcard, will play big-serving French star Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, who upset fourth seed Tommy Paul earlier on Tuesday.
He reached the second round in his last two visits to Melbourne Park, and the US Open's fourth round in 2023.
Fifth-seeded Canadian Denis Shapovalov and second seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, of Spain, were also beaten on Tuesday.
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