Yoshinori Asakawa was born in 1941 in Tokushima, Japan and began his studies as a student of biology at Tokushima University in 1960, but turned his attention to organic chemistry. He earned M.S and Ph.D degrees in chemistry from Hiroshima University. He was a Research Assistant at Hiroshima University until 1976, during which period he spent 2 years at the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France where he worked with Professor Guy Ourisson. He became an Associate Professor in 1976 and Full Professor in 1981 at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokushima Bunri University (TBU), where he was the dean (1986–1988, 2000–2003) and at present is the Director of Institute of Pharmacology (1986–). 

He serves on the editorial boards of Phytomedicine, Phytochemistry, Planta Medica, Fitoterapia, Flavour and Fragrance Journal, Natural Product Research, Spectroscopy, Recent Research Developments in Phytochemistry, and Malaysian Journal of Sciences, among others. For his outstanding research, he was awarded the first Hedwig medal from the International Association of Bryologists in 1983, the Pergamon Phytochemistry Prize and certificate from Elsevier Science in 1997, the Tokushima News Paper Prize in 1997, and the ISEO Prize in 2004. He has welcomed 36 postdoctoral fellows from various countries and published more than 500 original papers, 26 books and monographs, 13 reviews, and filed 17 patents.He received Gusi Peace Prize International in 2014 for Academe and Research in Organic Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Science.