[6] During his college years, Yoshino had attended a course taught by Japanese chemist Kenichi Fukui, the first recipient of East Asian ancestry to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

[9] He joined the Exploratory Research Team at Asahi Kasei Corporation in the early 1970s to explore new general-purpose materials, initially exploring practical applications for polyacetylene but turned to experimenting with using polyacetylene as an anode material once Japan's electronics industry attempted to create new lightweight and compact rechargeable battery to power their mobile devices.

[9] In 1994, he became manager of technical development for the LIB manufacturer A&T Battery Corp.,[9] a joint venture company of Asahi Kasei and Toshiba.

[10] Polyacetylene is the electroconductive polymer discovered by Hideki Shirakawa, who later (in 2000) would be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for its discovery.

[9] Polyacetylene had low real density which meant high capacity required large battery volume, and also had problems with instability, so Yoshino switched to carbonaceous material as anode and in 1985 fabricated the first prototype of the LIB and received the basic patent.

[9] The LIB's coil-wound structure was conceived by Yoshino to provide large electrode surface area and enable high current discharge despite the low conductivity of the organic electrolyte.