Nomura was born into a family of judoka. His father was the founder of a local judo dojo, and his brother was also an instructor who taught Olympic gold medalist Shinji Hosokawa. His nephew, Tadahiro Nomura, is the only judoka to have won three gold medals at the Summer Olympics. Nomura himself attended Tenri University before starting work at the Hakuhodo company. He placed second in the World Judo Championships in 1969 and 1971, and won the All-Japan Judo Championships in 1972 to become the Japanese representative for the half middleweight division at the 1972 Summer Olympics. He won all five of his matches at the Olympics by "ippon" to capture the gold medal. He also won the 1973 World Judo Championships held in Lausanne, Switzerland.