Shinoda, born 1931 in Tokyo, studied at Aoyama Gakuin University but left short of graduation. Until 1967, he worked at the National Institute for Industry and Crafts. He exhibited at a variety of modern art exhibitions with works aiming to explore the spatial properties of sculpture. In 1963-64, he briefly enrolled at the School of the Art Institute Chicago. He participated in the Tokyo Biennale, Ube Biennale of Contemporary Japanese Sculpture, and the Venice Biennale of 1966, and won the 9th Takamura Kotaro Prize in the same year.

Further awards such as the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art Prize, the Mori Museum Award and the Asakura Fumio Prize followed. In 2000, Shinoda was selected for the Education Award of the Japan Sculpture Center (JSC) as the first Asian artist to receive it. He held positions as a professor at Tsukuba University and Kanazawa College of Art, as well as guest professor at UCLA. His works are held by major collections abroad such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Humlebæk, Denmark).