In his youth, Nomura was a baseball player and was very well known within his region, but his career never progressed any further through injury and turned to property developing.
[1] In 1992, Nomuken was runner up in the "All Japan Ikaten" Finals and later in 1996 opened his own tuning shop Uras (reverse for saru, Japanese for monkey), producing drift specific products.
But as soon as he signed a contract with parts manufacturer Blitz as a works driver, his skills quickly developed.
[1] He also competes in the budget spinoff series, D1 Street Legal with a toned down version of his Skyline.
He announced his intention to retire after the 2018 season on Twitter,[2] and ran his last full-time race on Odaiba.