Plant leaves are a crucial organ associated closely with chloroplast development, photosynthesis rate and crop productivity. In this study, a white fine stripe leaf 1 (wfsl1) mutant was isolated and characterized from the japonica rice Zhonghua11 (ZH11) after ethyl methanesulfonate mutagenesis. The wfsl1 displayed white fine stripe leaves since tillering stage and abnormal chloroplast structure. Map-based cloning and Bioinformatic analysis indicated that WFSL1 on chromosome 1 contains an "A" to "T" substitution in protein coding region, and encodes a putative metal-dependent phosphohydrolase with HD domain at the N-terminus. WFSL1 was targeted to the chloroplasts and had higher expression in mature leaves and sheaths. RNA-seq analysis revealed that chloroplast development and photosynthesis genes were significantly affected in wfsl1 plants. Levels of WFSL1 and chloroplast encoded proteins were decreased in wfsl1 mutants via western blot analysis. Compared with WT, wfsl1 exhibits lower Chl content and defective in biogenesis of chloroplast ribosomes, which resulted in reduced grain yield. Taken together, our results show that WFSL1 is critical for chloroplast development, ribosome biogenesis, and light energy utilization, finally affects grain yield.