Ichiro Yashida was an elderly Japanese man whose life was saved by Wolverine during the atomic bomb explosion over Nagasaki many years ago towards the end of WWII. After being saved, he went on to be the head of his own company, the Yashida Corporation. He is the main antagonist of "The Wolverine" film.
During the final days of World War II, Wolverine saved Yashida from the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, an act for which he was forever indebted to Wolverine. His first encounter with mutants made him obsessed with unravelling their secrets, and led to him developing a company revolving around genetic ventures and technology.
Yashida started a family in the years that followed, and while he did not connect well with his son, he bonded very well with his granddaughter Mariko. He would often tell her stories of the man who had once saved him, and laced these with mythology to the point where the Wolverine had been made out to be a protective spirit. In those early years he also chanced upon another mutant, Yukio, whom he brought home and raised alongside Mariko as another granddaughter.
When Yashida realized that his life was nearing its end, he instructed Yukio to scour the globe searching for the Wolverine, a task which took over one year to accomplish. Once Yukio brought Logan to Japan to meet Yashida, he thanked Logan for saving his life all those years ago, and promised to return the favor by offering to strip him of his immortality and take the ability himself, thus enabling Logan to live a normal life. Logan refused, stating that his healing abilities were more of a curse than a blessing. Yashida later died that night, and a traditional Japanese funeral was held by his family and esteemed guests the following day. Logan attended Master Yashida's funeral alongside Yukio, Shingen Yashida, and Mariko. Yashida instructed Logan to take care of his granddaughter, whom he entrusted with control of the family in his will.
However, as Mariko was kidnapped by the Yakuza and brought to the Yashida corporation's main research facility, it was revealed that Yashida did not die on that night, and was instead sustained by a robotic suit made out of adamantium. Yashida then revealed his intention to forcefully extract Wolverine's healing ability and be reborn to live forever, and had been stockpiling as much adamntium as he could from all over the world, to the point that he brought the Yashida Corporation on the edge of brankruptcy. In the process of fighting Wolverine in his adamantium suit, he used his super-heated adamantium swords to kill Kenuichio Harada, break Wolverine's claws and extract his healing abilities from his body, with the use of mini pneumatic drills from the armor's wrists. However, Mariko intervened and stabbed her grandfather with one of Wolverine's shattered adamantium claws, whilst Wolverine used the distraction to finish him off with his regrown bone claws, sending him plummeting down to his death by the mountainside.
