Michiko Arasaka (Kei's daughter)

"I remember the day my whole world changed. I kind of knew in a vague way that there was a war going on, but it was very remote. My father never wanted to talk about it. And then, suddenly, my father was gone, my world was gone, the City I'd grown up in was gone—everything was gone. And it was all our fault."

- Michiko Sanderson, 2045

Michiko Arasaka, or Michiko Sanderson, was head of the Hato Faction of the Arasaka Corporation and founder of Danger Girl. She holds a dual citizenship with the US and Japan, however allied with the US government.

Overview
Michiko Arasaka is the daughter of Kei Arasaka, and granddaughter of Saburo Arasaka. She was head of the Hato faction of Arasaka and allied with the NUSA after the 4th Corporate War, she also founded the private security and private detective firm known as Danger Girl. Most of her life was kept secret from the rest of the Arasaka family, especially her grandfather Saburo. Born in the US she holds a dual citizenship for both Japan and the US, however her descent is pure Japanese. She also has access to many assets of the Arasaka estate in Old Westbrook and a bodyguard, Kenichi Zaburo, once one of Arasaka's top Solos and her personal bodyguard since she was four. She's known as the little detective by the media, her personality was noted as being very adorable with oversized anime like personality when dealing with the public, despite this look she is very skilled and intelligent.

Michiko may or may not be working against the interest of her family, despite being being the face of the Hato Faction of Arasaka. She inherited her father's holdings in the company after he passed away. The Arasaka Corporation was hoping for better relations with the United States after the war, and Michiko is presented as the face of the movement within the company.

2000s
Michiko Arasaka was born in the United States, her father Kei Arasaka married a woman of Japanese descent who was an American citizen. It was because of this reason Kei kept his daughter and family secret to avoid them becoming a target, as well as to avoid her grandfather Saburo Arasaka from finding out his first grandkid was half American, which wouldn't have pleased him.

Michiko, faced her own dilemma. Her family company was now hated worldwide as one of the instigators of a terrible war, as well as having a reputation for mass-murder based on the accusation that they had detonated a nuclear device in the center of a major American city. Michiko, a sheltered seventeen-year-old high schooler, had, of course, known very little of her elder family's world-spanning machinations and her father had made certain to keep her away from the more unsavory side of the family business. With the Arasaka Corporation now persona non grata in the Americas, Michiko faced being deported to Japan, a distant nation that, as an American-born and raised teenager, was utterly alien to her.

Michiko's solution was to lean heavily into her strengths. At 17 Michiko was young, adorably cute, and possessed a high IQ. She already had thousands of devoted young fans all over the world who were willing to take it as her being an innocent bystander who had nothing to do with her family's corporation. She started by traveling to Washington D.C. to meet with the President, Elizabeth Kress, to one make an apology for her family's participation in the conflict and then to plead her case to remain an American citizen. Michiko's meeting proved successful and was able to remain in America to finish her high school career and then enter Stanford University, where she majored in criminology. When she graduated three years later, she started her own business.

2045
Danger Girl was the name of the company Michiko founded in Night City. On the surface, it was a private investigation firm specializing in cases for celebrities and other important clients. As the perky, unstoppable head, Michiko was a staple of parties and events from New Hollywood to the hot spots of recovering Europe. Her visible naivete and irrepressible charm disguised the fact that she was also a highly competent criminologist. It also obscured the fact that behind the scenes, she was fulfilling one of the directives she agreed to perform as part of her deal with Elizabeth Kress to remain in the United States: to locate and dismantle any Arasaka operations in and around the country.

In Night City there was no better face than Michiko Sanderson, her name was taken when she married her partner, detective Marc Sanderson. In her thirties she still exuded the same bubbly, enthusiastic charm that won the world over in her late teens. A constant sight at almost any important social gala, Michiko had a string of successfully solved cases that had made Danger Girl the top of it's class. Michiko had grown into an elegant, lovely woman who could read a room like a book and yet never reveals anything to her suspects other than her happy, cheerful facade she kept up. Behind her was the formidable figure of Kenichi Zaburo, however he was not as visible to the public as he once was in her teens.

Development
Mike Pondsmith first mentioned Michiko Arasaka while in a Poland panel where he had live CP2020 session. Later when ask about the scenario on Reddit, Mike answered it was known as "Michiko's Night Out."

"The name of the scenario is "Michiko's Night Out." It involves the granddaughter of Saburo (Kei's youngest daughter) leaving the Arasaka compound on her 18th birthday in the company of her personal bodyguard, the super solo Kenichi Zaburo (Morgan's Arasaka nemesis). While she's out barhopping in Night City, she runs into (and causes) enormous amounts of chaos, culminating in a wild fling with --get this--Adam Smasher, the cyborg.

''I ran this scenario for my own players and extended it over several months. It's a favorite of mine, because the external threats are far less troublesome that the ones the players bring with them to the table. And Michiko is a wonderful NPC to play--she's like Battle Angel Alita crossed with a mad Girl Genius. You will meet a somewhat older Michiko in the Time of the Red, and she might be showing up in 2077."''

Upon release of the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart kit it was finally made clear that Michiko was now a canon character in charge of a faction of the Arasaka Corporation.

Trivia

 * She is not directly related to Michiko Arasaka, Saburo's third and final wife.
 * Mike Pondsmith described Michiko as Battle Angel Alita combined with a mad girl genius.