Hanako Arasaka: Saburo's Daughter and the Face of Arasaka

Hanako Arasaka is the only daughter of Saburo Arasaka, raised in a gilded cage and grown into the most enigmatic figure in Arasaka. In Cyberpunk 2077 she's the one who offers V a way out: testify against her brother, and Arasaka will save your life. Taking that offer leads to The Devil ending. (Corporation Report 2020 Volume 1; Cyberpunk 2077)

Who is Hanako Arasaka?#

Hanako is Saburo's youngest child and only daughter. Her mother Michiko died from complications soon after her birth, and Saburo, by then 80, made her his favourite. To keep her safe from the company's brutal world he had her tutored inside the Arasaka compound near Tokyo, and she left it rarely and only under heavy guard. (Corporation Report 2020 Volume 1)

Cut off from the outside, Hanako went exploring in the Net and taught herself to netrun. Saburo made sure she never learned the darker side of the business, but her travels online were starting to show her the truth. She knew he planned to marry her off for a corporate alliance and quietly dreaded it. She had sworn to live her own life once he was gone, without ever wanting to hurt him. She found her half-brother Kei cold and threatening, but loved her full brother Yorinobu, and met him secretly in the Net while he ran with his gang. In the 2020 books she also heads Hatashi Shipping. (Corporation Report 2020 Volume 1)

Hanako after the Fourth Corporate War#

Kei died during the Fourth Corporate War. At his funeral Yorinobu asked to come home, and Hanako's support got him back into the family. (Cyberpunk RED)

Cyberpunk RED describes Hanako as one of the few people who grasped what Alt Cunningham's work really meant. She spent her time on her own digital projects, including a new version of Soulkiller meant to move engrams into cloned bodies. Arasaka's old guard gathered around her as the Kiji faction, conservatives who wanted to carry on Saburo's plans while making peace with the NUSA. How much of the faction she actually ran is left unclear. (Cyberpunk RED)

Cyberpunk 2077's database entry keeps the mystery. It says she has never held an official post at Arasaka, that lawyers stamp on any attempt to look into her past, and that people who spread rumours about her tend not to last. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Hanako in Cyberpunk 2077#

Hanako sailed to Night City with Saburo and her bodyguard, Sandayu Oda, when he went to confront Yorinobu over the stolen Relic. After Saburo's death she accepted the poisoning story and agreed to speak at his memorial parade in Japantown. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Goro Takemura jumped onto her float and, when she refused to listen, took her to his hideout. There V told her what they'd seen at Konpeki Plaza. Hanako switched her tracker back on, and Adam Smasher carried her out in the raid that followed. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Back in Arasaka hands, she contacts V through a proxy. She asks V to get a copy of Soulkiller, then meets them at the restaurant Embers. There she admits no one believed the poison story, herself included, but she loved her brother too much to oppose him until she realised he'd tried to have her killed. She offers to save V's life in exchange for V's testimony before the board. Then she's called back to the Arasaka estate, where Yorinobu's guards keep her. (Cyberpunk 2077)

The Devil ending: Hanako's deal#

If V takes the deal, V breaks Hanako out of the estate, with Takemura if he's alive, and flies her to Arasaka Tower. She takes V to the Mikoshi access point and shows them Saburo's engram, then brings it before the board. When Yorinobu's troops attack the meeting, V saves her and her niece Michiko, and she sends V to take her brother alive. (Cyberpunk 2077)

What she wanted all along was her father back. Yorinobu's mind is overwritten with Saburo's while Hanako holds him. V is flown to an Arasaka orbital station, where the surgery fails, and V is offered a place in Secure Your Soul instead. The endings guide covers what each answer leads to. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Does Hanako die?#

In every base-game ending except The Devil, yes, though how she dies depends on V's route. If V goes into Arasaka Tower alone or with Rogue, Hanako still holds her board meeting, Yorinobu's purge of the board goes ahead and she's among the dead. He goes back to Tokyo to grieve. If V goes in with the Aldecaldos, Yorinobu later confirms she was among those killed when Alt Cunningham took over the tower's systems. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Phantom Liberty's Tower ending kills her too. With V in a coma after the NUSA removes the Relic, she and Takemura try to oust Yorinobu, fail, and Hanako dies. See the Phantom Liberty guide. (Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)

Where 2077 differs from the tabletop#

The 2020 books give her an innocent heroine's start: protected, kind and starting to see what her father is. Cyberpunk RED and 2077 move her into the centre of the company as a faction head and keeper of its secrets. The independent life she swore she'd lead after Saburo's death never happens. In The Devil she brings him back instead. (Corporation Report 2020 Volume 1; Cyberpunk RED; Cyberpunk 2077)