Graduating from the University of Tokyo, where he studied French literature, Yoshida entered the Shōchiku studio in 1955 and worked as an assistant to Keisuke Kinoshita,[1] before debuting as a director in 1960 with Rokudenashi.

[2] He was a central member of what came to be called the "Shōchiku Nouvelle Vague" along with Nagisa Oshima and Masahiro Shinoda,[3] and his works have been studied under the larger rubric of the Japanese New Wave,[4] a linkage which Yoshida himself disliked.

After Shōchiku's re-editing of his Escape from Japan (1964), he left the studio to start his own production company,[1] for which he directed such films as Eros + Massacre.

[1] After a long absence from the screen following the 1973 Coup d'État, he returned with A Promise, which was shown in the Un Certain Regard section of the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.

[1] He also published a number of books on the topic of cinema, including one on his own cinematic work and an analysis of the films of Yasujirō Ozu.