Yōichi Takahashi was born on July 28, 1960, in the Katsushika ward of Tokyo, Japan. From an early age, he was passionate about drawing, creating comics throughout elementary and middle school. While he put aside his artistic pursuits in high school to focus on the school baseball team, he resolved to become a professional manga artist after graduating. His career began in earnest in 1980 when he won a new talent award from Weekly Shōnen Jump for a manga about soccer, which led to the serialization of his most famous work, Captain Tsubasa, beginning in 1981.

Takahashi is best known as the original creator of the globally successful Captain Tsubasa franchise. The manga follows the journey of Tsubasa Ozora, a young boy with immense talent and passion for soccer, as he dreams of winning the FIFA World Cup for Japan. The series became a cultural phenomenon, and its first anime adaptation premiered in 1983, sparking a widespread soccer boom in Japan. This original 1983 series is one of several anime adaptations of his work, including subsequent series such as Captain Tsubasa J (1994) and the 2018 reboot simply titled Captain Tsubasa. He is also the creator behind other sports manga, including Hungry Heart and The Wolf Striker (Wild Striker), which was adapted into an anime in 2002. Beyond his own series, Takahashi contributed to the NHK project Ani × Para: Anata no Hero wa Dare Desu ka, a series of animated short films about Paralympic sports, where he was credited as the original creator and story director for the episode on blind soccer.

A defining characteristic of Takahashi's work is its focus on sports, particularly soccer, and the themes of ambition, perseverance, and friendship. His narratives typically center on a prodigiously talented young athlete and their journey to overcome rivals and achieve greatness on an international stage. The identity of his work is deeply intertwined with the sport of soccer; his stories are credited with inspiring a generation of real-world professional footballers in Japan and around the globe, with players like Zinedine Zidane, Andrés Iniesta, and Kylian Mbappé citing Captain Tsubasa as an influence on their careers. This direct impact on the sport elevates his work beyond mere entertainment, cementing its place in the history of both manga and soccer.

Takahashi holds significant importance in the manga and anime industry. He is often hailed as a pioneer of soccer manga in Japan, and his work on Captain Tsubasa has sold over 90 million copies worldwide. His influence was formally recognized in 2023 when he was inducted into the Japan Football Hall of Fame, an honor that acknowledges his profound contribution to the development of football in the country. After a career spanning more than four decades, Takahashi announced his retirement from serialized manga in 2024, citing age-related health concerns, though he has expressed an intention to continue overseeing the Captain Tsubasa franchise in a less physically demanding format.