The Street Samurai/Face? It's a natural combination and one I'm quite fond of. I've always preferred flexible character concepts.
As far as specific recommendations? This seems like a very "soft" style character that's good at what he does. I'm not going to claim to have a lot of optimal recommendations.
1) I'd go ahead and get the Influence Skill group at 4. Con, Negotiation and Etiquette are all skills that will help the role the player wants to fill in addition to leadership. Get the rebate and be a little more flexible for a relatively minimal investment. If you had to drop Athletics Group to 2 to do so I feel that it would be worth it.
2) I'd look at dropping unarmed to 1 (maybe with a martial art specialization). It fits the concept but a blades specialist should have relatively limited concerns as far as being completely disarmed.
3) I like pistols for the character. This character strikes me as the master of the compromised meet. The guy you hire when you want a face for the meeting that's a 50/50 chance of turning into a gunfight. The concealibility of hold outs have a utility for this type of character.
4) If you can free up points for more perception do it. If you're life is depending on spotting the meet going bad before the other guy its a must.
5) I'd be seriously tempted to move a point of Reaction to Charisma.
6) I honestly find Dodge to be of pretty limited use to take that high at chargen. If you plan on going full defense a lot it may serve better but I'd consider dropping it completely and picking it up in character development.
7) My faces tend to have more contacts than this. I understand that's an expensive choice, but I figure that a face should know people to use those social skills on.
If you're going to go pistols, and have a cyberarm, get yourself a cyber holster. Concealability doesn't get any better.
9) I'd rule that a Katanna was a two handed weapon that required close coordination to use. For one handed use with the cyberlimb I'd go with a sword. I'd rule that with the Katana specifically the strength of the limbs wouldn't matter since the techniques are so specific. Check with your GM to see what his ruling is on what constitutes "close coordination" vis a vis cyberlimbs and attributes. There's a fair amount of ambiguity and his is the decision that will end up mattering to your character.
10) Invest in at least some basic Matrix programs for the comlink. Dump the Car if you have to to pay for it. Take mass transit or a cab until you have the money to pick up a car. You might even look at something like the Pocket Hacker (an agent from wired that can perform some simple matrix actions for you) or some ICE from unwired.
11) I'd invest in at the least a couple of knives (the ceramic ones from Arsenal if you're using that book), a hold out pistol and at least one concealable holster.
12) I'd invest less in ammo as a starting character. Hopefully you should bet paid before you blow through 20 clips of ammo.
13) With your background write up you might want to look at the Records on File negative quality from Runner's Companion if it's in use.
14) I like the Oh crap aspect of Edge and feel naked with out a point or two beyond my "burn to prevent char death" point. YMMV however.
I think he's playable as written depending on your GM and party power levels. You've got reasonable, but not hugely munchy dice pools. in your primary skill sets. If the rest of your party is going into play with between 13 and 15 dice in their primary pools then you're absolutely fine. Check with your GM and see what he's looking for. I tend to favor the Base book definitions. (4 is an above average stat, 5 is good 6 is exceptional, 4 is a combat veteran skill level, 5 is elite and 6 is a standout among elites), and my basic impression is that cyberwear is fairly limited (with something like the LONESTAT SWAT package from augmentation being pretty typical for top end cop/front line soldier types with a little better for Elite soldiers and top end corp styles) in my games that means that most baddies will be at 1 or 2 IP and 10-12 (mostly less) dice including augmentation. That doesn't mean there aren't vat grown cyber ninjas, just that they're not guarding the C list POPco facility in Redmond. If his expectations are different you might need some trimming.
