Saburo Arasaka: the 158-Year-Old Emperor of Arasaka

Saburo Arasaka is the man who built Arasaka into the world's most powerful corporation and refused to let go of it for over a century. A former Imperial Japanese Navy pilot born in 1919, he was still its master at 158, when his own son killed him in a Night City hotel at the start of Cyberpunk 2077. (Corporation Report 2020 Volume 1; Cyberpunk 2077)

Who is Saburo Arasaka?#

Saburo is the second head of the Arasaka family business and the one who made it an empire. His father founded the company, and Saburo took it from a Japanese manufacturer to a global corporation built on three pillars: manufacturing, the Arasaka Bank and Arasaka Security. In Cyberpunk 2077's database he's the head of the world's biggest arms maker, a man rumoured to be able to order even hardened assassins to kill themselves. (Corporation Report 2020 Volume 1; Cyberpunk 2077)

He believes in old Japanese values, in his family's samurai ancestry and in his own destiny. He also hates the United States for what it did to Japan in the war. The tabletop books describe his plan as tying America to Arasaka through its own dependence on what he sells it. (Corporation Report 2020 Volume 1; Cyberpunk 2020)

The war and the vow#

In World War II Saburo flew fighters for the Imperial Japanese Navy and became an ace. A wound in combat ended his flying career, and he went home to the family compound to brood. When Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender on 15 August 1945, Saburo was ready to commit seppuku. At the last moment he saw another path. His father had hidden the family fortune abroad, and Saburo decided Japan could rise again through business instead of war. He refused to talk about the war ever again and threw himself into study. (Corporation Report 2020 Volume 1; Cyberpunk 2077)

Building the empire#

Saburo took over when his father died in 1960 and turned Arasaka into a bank and a private security force as well as a manufacturer. He bought politicians, used blackmail and spying for influence rather than money, and pushed Arasaka onto the world stage. He married late. His first son, Kei, was raised as his heir. His later wife Michiko gave him Yorinobu and Hanako, and died after Hanako's birth. (Corporation Report 2020 Volume 1; Cyberpunk 2077)

When Yorinobu learned what the company really did, he ran off and formed a gang to fight it. Saburo was hurt but accepted Kei's argument that Yorinobu had to be dealt with. Hanako he kept sheltered inside the family compound. Our Yorinobu and Hanako pages cover their sides. (Corporation Report 2020 Volume 1)

Saburo in the Fourth Corporate War#

During the Fourth Corporate War, Arasaka fought Militech across the world. Saburo despised Militech's chief Donald Lundee, who reminded him of the American pilots he'd fought. (Firestorm: Stormfront)

The war cost him Kei. With Arasaka beaten and Japan turned against him, Kei let Spider Murphy persuade him that taking his own life, by having his mind taken with Soulkiller, was the only way to restore the family's honour. (Firestorm: Shockwave)

At Kei's funeral, Yorinobu asked to come home, and with Hanako's help he was taken back into the family. (Cyberpunk RED)

By the 2040s of Cyberpunk RED, the company was split into factions waiting for the old man to die: Hanako's Kiji, Yorinobu's Taka and the Hato, built around Kei's daughter Michiko. Saburo had no intention of handing over anything. (Cyberpunk RED)

In Cyberpunk 2077, Johnny Silverhand's memories show Saburo after the 2023 attack on Arasaka Tower, watching as the captured rocker is put through Soulkiller. That's how Johnny's engram ended up in Arasaka's hands. See Arasaka Tower 2023. (Cyberpunk 2077)

How Saburo died#

By 2077 Saburo had spent decades on medical treatment and on technology to preserve minds, including the Relic, a biochip designed to carry an engram into a new body. Yorinobu stole a Relic prototype and fled to Night City. Saburo sailed after him with Hanako and went to Yorinobu's suite in Konpeki Plaza alone, sending his bodyguard Goro Takemura out of the room. (Cyberpunk 2077)

What he didn't know was that V and Jackie Welles were hiding in the suite, there to steal the Relic. They watched father and son argue until Yorinobu snapped and strangled him. Yorinobu told security his father had been poisoned and blamed Takemura, and Arasaka put out the story that Saburo died of natural causes. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Saburo's engram and The Devil ending#

Saburo's death isn't quite the end. He had a copy of his mind made, and his engram was waiting. After her kidnapping, Hanako talks to it, and it agrees that V should be offered a deal. (Cyberpunk 2077)

If V takes that deal in "Nocturne Op55N1", Saburo's engram speaks with V before the board meeting at Arasaka Tower and tells them they've been part of the Relic project all along. Hanako brings the engram to the board, where Saburo calls them cowards for letting Yorinobu take over and orders them to obey Hanako as if she were him. After V captures Yorinobu, his mind is overwritten with his father's, and Saburo goes on living in his son's body. He undoes Yorinobu's changes, and the news in the epilogue reports protests against a world where the rich can live forever. The endings guide covers the rest. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Where 2077 differs from the tabletop#

The biggest change is his body. In Cyberpunk 2020's era Saburo, over 100, relied on a powered wheelchair. In 2077, at 158, he walks, sails to Night City and confronts his son in person. (Corporation Report 2020 Volume 1; Cyberpunk 2077)

Johnny's death changes too. The 2077 version, from Johnny's own memories, has him captured and soulkilled in front of Saburo. The Firestorm books have Adam Smasher kill him inside the tower, and that account doesn't include a meeting with Saburo. (Cyberpunk 2077; Firestorm: Shockwave)