Born in Tokyo, he showed an early interest in composition, creating children's songs and other works from childhood. He continued his musical activities even while studying in the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law, at Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo), where his own compositions were performed by the university orchestra. After graduating, while serving as a diplomat for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at embassies in Germany and the Soviet Union, he audited lectures on harmony and music theory at local universities. From 1941, he studied composition under Saburo Moroi for three years. In 1945 (at the end of the war), he was detained by the French army for three years in Cambodia, where he was stationed. During this period, he acquired René Leibowitz's "Schoenberg and His School." Upon his return to Japan, this book was passed on to his fellow students, Minao Shibata and Yoshiro Irino, becoming a significant catalyst for the dissemination of twelve-tone technique in Japan. His extensive oeuvre includes orchestral, vocal, and instrumental music, as well as numerous stage works such as operas and ballets. Toda himself employed the twelve-tone technique as one of many compositional methods, creating works with a romantic sensibility that distinguished them from those of other twelve-tone practitioners. After retiring from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1964, he held professorships at Toho Gakuen School of Music and Senzoku Gakuen College of Music. He was awarded the Légion d'honneur (France) and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette.