He was born in Sapporo, Hokkaido and grew up in Kure City in Hiroshima Prefecture.
Shimoda has trained under Yūichi Kasai's instruction at the Teiken Boxing Gym in Tokyo.
Akifumi Shimoda was born in Kure city of Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan on September 11, 1984.
On April 9, 2007, Shimoda captured the Japanese super bantamweight title and defended it four times.
Shimoda won the WBA super bantamweight title from Korean Ryol Li Lee via a twelfth round unanimous decision in the latter's first title defence in Tokyo at the Ariake Coliseum on January 31, 2011.