Recently, we have realized hard X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (HX-PES) using high-brilliance synchrotron radiation at SPring-8. High energy (6 and 8 keV) photon excitation enables us to probe photoelectrons with larger escape depth compared to conventional PES. This allows us to conduct a study of intrinsic electronic structure of bulk and embedded interface of materials. A specially designed apparatus including X-ray optics achieves both high energy resolution and high throughput. We report the characteristics and performance of HX-PES, and also the application to study of the electronic structure of new functional materials and strongly correlated electron materials.