A native of Tokyo, he was a pupil of Kan'ichi Shimofusa; he studied conducting with Kurt Wöss and Wilhelm Loibner and, like them, later became a conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra.
As a conductor he served with numerous orchestras throughout Japan; as a composer his prime influences are Béla Bartók and Dmitri Shostakovich.
Mstislav Rostropovich performed the world premiere of the composer's six-movement 1967 First Cello Concerto, a piece described by Gramophone as "attractive", with the additional comment that it "sounds like Japanese folk music rendered orchestral by Kodaly".
[1] His best-known work is a Rhapsody for Orchestra based on Japanese folk songs.
Toyama won the Suntory Music Award in 1982.