Toru Takao was born (1977) in Himeji, Japan. He received a diploma in German literature of Art in 2000 from Kwansei-Gakuin University, Japan. After his academic study, he gave a year in Los Angeles, California and another year in Germany for volunteer work. During this period, he was strongly inspired by the carillon in Germany. Since 2002, he has taken carillon lessons from Mathieu Polak, Arie Abbenes, and Bernard Winsemius. In 2006 he received a Bachelor of Music in Carillon diploma from the Utrecht Conservatorium. In June 2006, he won second prize at the international carillon competition in Tiel, The Netherlands. He gave several concerts in Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands in 2006.
Currently he is studying with Frans Haagen for the Master of Music in Carillon degree. Besides his study, Mr. Takao has established a publication firm Polak-Takao Publications together with Mathieu Polak to discover more possibilities in carillon music art.