Yorinobu Arasaka

Yorinobu Arasaka was born on September 8, 1995, in Tokyo, Japan, to Saburo and Michiko Arasaka. Raised in the heavily guarded and privileged confines of the Arasaka family compound, Yorinobu grew up alongside his sister, Hanako, in a world of wealth, power, and control. From the outset, he was given the finest education available in Japan, a life of luxury crafted to shape him into the next generation of Arasaka leadership. However, unlike his elder half-brother Kei, Yorinobu was sheltered from the darker side of the corporation. His father, Saburo, deliberately withheld the full truth of Arasaka's operations until he deemed Yorinobu ready.   That moment came in 2016, the day after Yorinobu graduated from the prestigious University of Tokyo (Todai). Saburo brought him into his private chambers and shared the true nature of the Arasaka Corporation—a legacy of control, manipulation, militarism, and dominance. While Kei had embraced the corporate machine with open arms, Yorinobu was internally horrified. Disillusioned and shaken, he kept his emotions hidden during the conversation, but the seeds of rebellion were planted. That very night, after a celebration held in his honor, he slipped away into the Tokyo night, vanishing without a trace.   For four years, Yorinobu lived as a fugitive from his own legacy. He embedded himself among Tokyo’s bosozoku—nomadic biker gangs known for their wild, rebellious nature—and eventually forged them into a focused group of anti-corporate insurgents known as the Kotetsu no Ryu ("Steel Dragons"). These renegades operated under his command, working to unearth the secrets of Arasaka's black operations and expose the corporation’s corruption. With his insider knowledge, Yorinobu provided the Steel Dragons with an edge, though they remained outmatched by the full might of Arasaka.   During this time, Yorinobu also became a skilled navigator between worlds: the streets and the corporate suites. He traveled the globe, meeting with enemies of Arasaka, searching for funding and alliances. His romantic vision of dismantling his father’s empire from the outside grew into a full-blown ideological crusade.   Back in Tokyo, Saburo mourned the loss of his son while remaining firm in his belief that loyalty to the corporation came before family. Kei, meanwhile, viewed Yorinobu’s defection as a betrayal worthy of death. Yet Hanako remained devoted to her brother, and the two maintained a clandestine connection via the Net, sharing brief but heartfelt monthly exchanges.   Yorinobu’s efforts eventually took him to Night City, a volatile hub where Arasaka's influence clashed with an ocean of resistance. During one visit, several of his local contacts were captured and executed during a corporate sweep. One of these was Hiraga, a key figure who knew critical information about the Steel Dragons. The data gathered by Arasaka was stored at its towers in Night City, and before it could be sent to Kei in Tokyo, Yorinobu intercepted it through a loyal contact. Unfortunately, that contact was discovered and forced to commit seppuku after destroying the stolen data. Despite these setbacks, Yorinobu learned that a hard copy remained with Iwasao Koremichi, Arasaka’s regional security director.   During the Fourth Corporate War (2021–2023), Yorinobu took more direct action against Arasaka, though he refused to ally with Militech, viewing them as equally corrupt. Instead, he provided intelligence to the Japanese government, assisting in the nationalization of Arasaka assets following the war. Yet even after the bombing of Arasaka Tower and the public outrage that followed, he saw that the corporation remained unbroken. From this realization came a grim understanding: Arasaka would only fall from within.   After Kei Arasaka's death, Yorinobu attended the funeral and reconciled—at least publicly—with his father. With Hanako’s help, he was slowly accepted back into the family fold. By 2045, he led the Taka ("Hawk") Faction of Arasaka. Though no longer an open rebel, he opposed the Kiji ("Pheasant") Faction—his father’s camp—from the inside, using more subtle and strategic methods than before. He was no longer the wild youth with a motorcycle gang but a calculating insider poised to sabotage the corporation through careful manipulation and control.   By 2077, Yorinobu had assumed a central position in the company’s hierarchy. Though once an outsider, he had now become the heir to the Arasaka Empire in all but name. Nevertheless, his hatred of his father remained. In secret, Yorinobu reached out to Ronald Cheever of NetWatch, laying the groundwork for a cooperative effort involving a stolen Relic prototype—an experimental biochip containing a preserved engram. Yorinobu ensured the chip held the engram of none other than Johnny Silverhand, Arasaka’s most infamous enemy.   He was warned by Anders Hellman, one of Arasaka's own scientists, that the chip was incomplete and unstable. Anders urged him to speak with his father before acting further, as Saburo was personally overseeing the Relic project. Yet when Saburo arrived in Night City to confront his son and retrieve the chip, Yorinobu’s resentment boiled over. In a fit of rage, he murdered his father—one of the most powerful men in the world. To the public, he claimed Saburo had been assassinated with poison, concealing his own patricide.   With his father dead, Yorinobu seized full control of the Arasaka Corporation. He immediately began restructuring its operations, starting by dismantling key facilities in Fukuoka and Kitakyushu. His long-gestating plan to dismantle the corporate empire from the inside had finally begun.   He remained publicly involved in the Arasaka brand, even participating in a parade to honor Saburo, attended by Hanako and their niece Michiko Arasaka. During the event, Hanako was kidnapped, prompting Yorinobu to deploy his chief enforcer, Adam Smasher, to rescue her. Afterward, he delivered a public warning that any harm done to the Arasaka family would be avenged.   Despite the rescue, Yorinobu kept Hanako under surveillance, assigning his loyalists to guard her at the North Oak estate. His paranoia and ambition reached a peak when he called an emergency meeting of the Arasaka supervisory board in Night City. Executives from across the globe—Tokyo, Paris, Shanghai, Kinshasa—were summoned. There, Yorinobu planned a military coup. He intended to use his loyalist troops in Night City, Kyoto, Dubai, and Paris to eliminate the other factions within Arasaka, remove the board of directors, and cement his full control over the corporation.   Yorinobu Arasaka's life was defined by a single, unrelenting mission: to destroy the legacy of his father—not through open warfare or rebellion, but through deception, inheritance, and betrayal. His journey from a privileged heir to a rogue insurgent and finally to a corporate despot is a testament to how even the most idealistic revolutions can become tangled in the very systems they once sought to destroy.