Yanagida was born in Tokyo, and received his doctorate in science from the University of Tokyo in 1970.
Career and research
He was Professor of Biophysics at Kyoto University from 1977 to 2004, where he served as Dean of Graduate School of Biostudies from 2001 to 2003. After retiring from Kyoto University and becoming Professor Emeritus, he has been Professor of the G0 Cell Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology.[4]