Westbrook in Cyberpunk 2077: Japantown, North Oak and Charter Hill

What Westbrook is#

Westbrook is where the money from the rest of Night City goes to be spent. Celebrities, corporate directors and wealthy locals live here, and everyone who can't live here visits on payday. In-game text calls it the best place in the city to live and have fun, and adds a joke: if you can't afford it, take out a loan and pretend for one night.

It borders City Center and looks like its friendlier cousin. Same money, better lighting. For the whole map, see Night City districts.

The three sub-districts#

Three very different ways to be in Westbrook.

• Japantown: The party district and the cultural center of the city's Japanese community. Gaming parlors, street food and capsule hotels pack the streets, along with Jig-Jig Street's red-light trade and the Cherry Blossom Market. It is also home base for most of the Yakuza families in Northern California.
• Charter Hill: Mass housing for ambitious corporates who can't afford North Oak. Life here is a constant low threat, which is why bodyguards and armored cars are normal.
• North Oak: The tree-lined, villa-and-tennis-court neighborhood of regional directors, bankers and executives. Private security is everywhere, so gangs barely exist. It is the most beautiful neighborhood in the city, and nobody who can't afford it gets to enjoy it.

Who runs it#

The Tyger Claws are the dominant gang and treat Japantown as theirs, but only at night, so they stay out of the way of heavy corporate security. In daylight Westbrook belongs to the guards.

That arrangement is the point: the Claws and the Yakuza families that share the district get limited police interference, and outsiders stand out like a sore thumb.

From ruin to resort#

Westbrook was the other half of the nuclear damage. When a bomb went off in the Arasaka Towers in 2023, the part of Westbrook closest to City Center was wrecked, and skyscrapers stood as crooked skeletons for about two decades. The great restoration cleared the ruins, and Asian corporations moved in. A former Combat Zone became an exclusive, ultra secure district.

North Oak was once the worst for crime. Mercenaries cleaned it up, and security forces keep it that way.

Westbrook in other canons#

Cyberpunk 2020 also has a Westbrook (Section F in the Night City sourcebook), a wealthy area of hills, parks and hunting grounds protected by security systems, with Arasaka-sponsored maglev service. In 2020 it is a green suburb. In 2077 it is neon and Japanese-inflected.

Landmarks#

Clouds is a dollhouse and nightclub in Megabuilding H8. Jig-Jig Street was Night City's most famous red-light district in the 2070s. Cherry Blossom Market, formerly Crystal Park Market, is in Japantown too.

Westbrook is also where the corporate elite live behind private security, and in Charter Hill the wealthy rely on bodyguards and armored vehicles. The Yakuza use Japantown as their home base for Northern California because it is centrally located and outsiders stand out.

The art team's own description is that Westbrook is Night City at its most opulent, with money earned elsewhere coming here to be spent.

Fixer's notes#

Where to go first: Japantown after dark. The Clouds dollhouse sits on the 12th floor of Megabuilding H8, and Jig-Jig Street is the famous red-light strip. If you want a place that looks good on screenshots, this is it.

What players miss: North Oak is a different game. No gangs, quiet roads, a sense of what the money is for. Our read: Westbrook works best as the answer to the question every other district asks, which is what you are fighting for.

Tabletop tip: use Charter Hill when your players need a corporate contact who is scared but not rich.

Who knows who#