Yorinobu Arasaka: The Rebel Heir of Arasaka in Cyberpunk 2077
The short version
Yorinobu Arasaka is Saburo Arasaka's younger son, a rebel who ran the Steel Dragons bosozoku gang in the tabletop lore and in Cyberpunk 2077 steals the Relic and takes over the corporation. Hideo Kimura voices him.
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The short version#
Yorinobu is the Arasaka who wanted out. In the tabletop lore he walked away from his father's empire on the night he graduated from Tokyo's university, formed a bosozoku gang called the Steel Dragons, and spent decades harassing Arasaka from the outside.
In Cyberpunk 2077 he has traded the bike for a CEO chair, and he is the man V and Jackie Welles end up tangled with after the Konpeki Plaza job.
Older canon: the Steel Dragons#
In the tabletop lore Yorinobu is described as a rockerboy and a counterweight to Johnny Silverhand, a charismatic voice of rebellion on the Tokyo streets. His hobby was exposing Arasaka black operations. His sister Hanako Arasaka was the person he kept in touch with, meeting her in the Net while he rode.
He turned down Militech's attempts to recruit him in the Fourth Corporate War and leaked information to help the Japanese government nationalize Arasaka's assets. The older books have him realize that Arasaka can only be beaten from inside. Our read: that line is the whole character in one sentence.
Spoilers What he does in 2077
He works with NetWatch operations manager Ronald Cheever on a plan to obtain a Relic sample, then steals a prototype from his father's Tokyo lab and loads it with Johnny Silverhand's engram. He is warned by Anders Hellman that it is not ready.
When Saburo arrives in Night City to retrieve it, Yorinobu strangles him at Konpeki Plaza, then claims an assassin poisoned him. He takes control of Arasaka and starts shutting facilities down, with the long-term goal of sabotaging the company from within. He frames Goro Takemura for the murder.
Hanako is kidnapped at Saburo's memorial parade; Yorinobu rescues her with Adam Smasher, his chief of security, and orders her to be kept safe at the family estate. Later he calls a board meeting in Arasaka Tower, planning a coup of his own.
Spoilers His fate in the endings
If V takes Hanako's deal (the Devil), V finds Yorinobu broken in the CEO suite, holding a gun he did not use on himself. He says his goal was to finish what Johnny started, destroying Arasaka from within. V can stop his suicide attempt. His body is then given to Saburo's engram, which lives on and reverses his changes.
In the other main endings, Hanako is killed. Yorinobu, grieving, returns to Tokyo. The Tower ending has Hanako and Takemura try a coup without V, and it fails. On the Reed route in 2079, radio news in a Delamain cab says Yorinobu was ousted and fled with nomads.
See the endings guide for the full routes.
Rebel or heir#
Yorinobu is the second son of Saburo and the heir to Arasaka after Kei dies. In the tabletop lore he carries the same last name and a very different politics. He knows the corporation from inside, which is why the Steel Dragons got any traction at all.
The Taka faction he leads is one of three factions competing for Arasaka's top spot, alongside Hanako's Kiji and Michiko's Hato. The stakes of the 2077 plot are really the stakes of this succession.
Fixer's notes#
Opinion: he is the game's most sympathetic villain and the least effective one. He is right about Arasaka and wrong about nearly every method. The man who spent decades dreaming of destroying his father's company ends up as the instrument of its continuity.
A fun connection: Evelyn Parker was his lover, and she is the one who planned the theft of the Relic from him. A developer stream confirmed Yorinobu never meant Hanako to die, which changes how you read his last scene.
At the table, Yorinobu is a rival PC: a rich kid with a good cause and the wrong plan. Use Saburo Arasaka for the pressure and Yorinobu for the doubt. Compare the 2020-era books before you quote either of them as canon for 2077.
Who knows who#
Connections as a table
| From | Link | To |
|---|---|---|
| Yorinobu Arasaka | father | Saburo Arasaka |
| Yorinobu Arasaka | sister, loyal to her | Hanako Arasaka |
| Yorinobu Arasaka | lover, used her | Evelyn Parker |
| Yorinobu Arasaka | chief of security | Adam Smasher |
| Yorinobu Arasaka | carries the Relic | V |
Explore#
- Official