diff --git a/changelog.d/8986-imported-private-brands.md b/changelog.d/8986-imported-private-brands.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5025ed4354
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/8986-imported-private-brands.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+Imported private brands are installed once, by the defining module's standalone constructor.
+
+A metadata-only imported class stub is now identified explicitly, so importing a class that uses private elements no longer re-runs brand installation in the importing module. Re-branding produced a second brand for the same class, so a private access that had been valid through one import path failed through the other.
+
+Covers direct imports, accessors, local and imported subclasses, same-module branding, and genuine duplicate initialization.
diff --git a/crates/perry-codegen/src/lower_call/field_init.rs b/crates/perry-codegen/src/lower_call/field_init.rs
index 9090685aaa..6615765a10 100644
--- a/crates/perry-codegen/src/lower_call/field_init.rs
+++ b/crates/perry-codegen/src/lower_call/field_init.rs
@@ -693,10 +693,39 @@ pub(crate) fn apply_field_initializers_recursive(
                 None => init_pairs.push((field.name.clone(), init, field.is_private)),
             }
         }
+        // #8962: an IMPORTED class installs nothing here. Its whole
+        // field-initializer phase — public field writes, private-field adds AND
+        // the shared private brand — is baked into the defining module's
+        // standalone `<prefix>__<class>_constructor`, which `codegen/method.rs`
+        // emits for exactly that reason ("At the `new ImportedClass(...)` call
+        // site, `lower_new` applies initializers against the imported class
+        // stub — which has none"). That premise holds for FIELDS because the
+        // stub flattens every field to `is_private: false` with `init: None`,
+        // so the worst this loop could do was write `undefined` into a slot the
+        // real constructor overwrites moments later.
+        //
+        // It does NOT hold for the private BRAND. The stub copies private
+        // METHOD and accessor names verbatim (it needs them to resolve dispatch
+        // symbols), and `has_private_instance_brand` is defined purely over
+        // `#`-prefixed method/getter/setter names — so a stub answers `true` and
+        // this site emitted `js_private_brand_add` at the importing module's
+        // `new`, on top of the one the defining module's constructor emits.
+        // Installing a class's brand twice on one object is the observable
+        // error PrivateMethodOrAccessorAdd requires, so the runtime threw
+        // "Cannot initialize private elements twice on the same object" out of
+        // `new Hono()` — any imported class with a private method or accessor,
+        // whether constructed directly or reached as an ancestor through
+        // `AncestorsOnly`.
+        //
+        // Suppressing BOTH flags (not just the brand) is what restores the
+        // `continue` below for a stub whose only private elements are methods:
+        // for a stub the two predicates are the same question, since its fields
+        // are never private.
         let (class_has_private_elements, class_has_private_brand) = ctx
             .classes
             .get(&class_name_in_chain)
             .copied()
+            .filter(|class| !class.is_imported_stub())
             .map(|class| {
                 (
                     class.has_private_instance_elements(),
diff --git a/crates/perry-hir/src/ir/decl.rs b/crates/perry-hir/src/ir/decl.rs
index 4683d1b220..dbbe74e3cc 100644
--- a/crates/perry-hir/src/ir/decl.rs
+++ b/crates/perry-hir/src/ir/decl.rs
@@ -284,6 +284,27 @@ pub struct Class {
 }
 
 impl Class {
+    /// True for the metadata-only stub `compile_module` synthesizes for a class
+    /// IMPORTED from another module (`perry-codegen/src/codegen/mod.rs`, "Build
+    /// a stub Class with the minimum fields the codegen needs").
+    ///
+    /// A stub is a NAME TABLE, not a class: it carries member names so the
+    /// importing module can resolve dispatch symbols, and carries no bodies, no
+    /// field initializers and no constructor. Everything a construction
+    /// actually *does* — field initializers, private-field adds, the private
+    /// brand — is baked into the defining module's standalone
+    /// `<prefix>__<class>_constructor` instead (`codegen/method.rs`,
+    /// `is_constructor_method`), precisely because the stub has none of it.
+    ///
+    /// `id == 0` is the marker: the driver hands out class ids from 1
+    /// (`run_pipeline.rs`: "Start at 1, 0 is reserved for \"no parent\"") and
+    /// every local class takes its id from `LoweringContext::fresh_class`, so
+    /// the stub built at `codegen/mod.rs` ("id: 0, // imported — no local
+    /// ClassId") is the only `Class` in a module's class table with id 0.
+    pub fn is_imported_stub(&self) -> bool {
+        self.id == 0
+    }
+
     /// Whether construction installs any instance-private element.
     pub fn has_private_instance_elements(&self) -> bool {
         self.fields.iter().any(|field| field.is_private)
diff --git a/crates/perry/tests/issue_8962_imported_class_private_brand.rs b/crates/perry/tests/issue_8962_imported_class_private_brand.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..58eea312a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/perry/tests/issue_8962_imported_class_private_brand.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,284 @@
+//! Regression for #8962: constructing a class IMPORTED from another module
+//! threw `TypeError: Cannot initialize private elements twice on the same
+//! object` when that class declared a private method or accessor.
+//!
+//! `import { Hono } from "hono"; new Hono()` was the report. The importing
+//! module sees the class only as the metadata-only stub `compile_module`
+//! builds — a name table with no bodies and no initializers — but the stub
+//! copies private METHOD names verbatim (it needs them to resolve dispatch
+//! symbols), and `Class::has_private_instance_brand` is defined purely over
+//! `#`-prefixed member names. So the `new` site emitted `js_private_brand_add`
+//! for a brand it does not own, on top of the one the DEFINING module's
+//! standalone `<prefix>__<class>_constructor` emits — and installing a class's
+//! brand twice on one object is the error PrivateMethodOrAccessorAdd requires.
+//!
+//! Every case here calls the private member after construction, so a fix that
+//! merely dropped the second install without leaving the first one standing
+//! would fail these too: the brand check inside the private-member access
+//! throws when no brand is present.
+
+use std::path::PathBuf;
+use std::process::Command;
+
+fn perry_bin() -> PathBuf {
+    PathBuf::from(env!("CARGO_BIN_EXE_perry"))
+}
+
+/// Compile `files` (relative path -> source) with `entry` as the entry point
+/// and return the binary's stdout. Panics with the compiler's or the program's
+/// output on any failure.
+fn compile_and_run(files: &[(&str, &str)], entry: &str) -> String {
+    let dir = tempfile::tempdir().expect("tempdir");
+    let root = dir.path();
+    for (name, source) in files {
+        let path = root.join(name);
+        if let Some(parent) = path.parent() {
+            std::fs::create_dir_all(parent).expect("mkdir");
+        }
+        std::fs::write(&path, source).expect("write source");
+    }
+    let entry_path = root.join(entry);
+    let output = root.join("main_bin");
+    let compile = Command::new(perry_bin())
+        .current_dir(root)
+        .arg("compile")
+        .arg(&entry_path)
+        .arg("-o")
+        .arg(&output)
+        .env("PERRY_NO_CACHE", "1")
+        .output()
+        .expect("run perry compile");
+    assert!(
+        compile.status.success(),
+        "perry compile failed\nstdout:\n{}\nstderr:\n{}",
+        String::from_utf8_lossy(&compile.stdout),
+        String::from_utf8_lossy(&compile.stderr)
+    );
+    let run = Command::new(&output).output().expect("run binary");
+    assert!(
+        run.status.success(),
+        "binary failed (status {:?})\nstdout:\n{}\nstderr:\n{}",
+        run.status.code(),
+        String::from_utf8_lossy(&run.stdout),
+        String::from_utf8_lossy(&run.stderr)
+    );
+    String::from_utf8_lossy(&run.stdout).trim().to_string()
+}
+
+/// The reduced `new Hono()`: a class with a private METHOD, declared in one
+/// module and constructed in another. No inheritance is needed to trigger it.
+#[test]
+fn imported_class_with_private_method_constructs_once() {
+    let stdout = compile_and_run(
+        &[
+            (
+                "base.ts",
+                r#"export class BaseX {
+  #m(): number { return 41; }
+  call(): number { return this.#m() + 1; }
+}
+"#,
+            ),
+            (
+                "main.ts",
+                r#"import { BaseX } from "./base";
+console.log(new BaseX().call());
+"#,
+            ),
+        ],
+        "main.ts",
+    );
+    assert_eq!(stdout, "42");
+}
+
+/// A private ACCESSOR carries the same brand as a private method, and the stub
+/// copies getter/setter names the same way.
+#[test]
+fn imported_class_with_private_getter_constructs_once() {
+    let stdout = compile_and_run(
+        &[
+            (
+                "base.ts",
+                r#"export class BaseX {
+  v = 41;
+  get #g(): number { return this.v + 1; }
+  call(): number { return this.#g; }
+}
+"#,
+            ),
+            (
+                "main.ts",
+                r#"import { BaseX } from "./base";
+console.log(new BaseX().call());
+"#,
+            ),
+        ],
+        "main.ts",
+    );
+    assert_eq!(stdout, "42");
+}
+
+/// A private-method class reached as an ANCESTOR: the leaf is local, so the
+/// brand came from the `AncestorsOnly` walk at the `new` site rather than from
+/// the leaf's own entry. Both spellings of the subclass — with and without an
+/// explicit constructor — take different paths through `lower_new`.
+#[test]
+fn local_subclass_of_imported_private_method_class() {
+    let base = r#"export class BaseX {
+  #m(): number { return 41; }
+  call(): number { return this.#m() + 1; }
+}
+"#;
+    let with_ctor = compile_and_run(
+        &[
+            ("base.ts", base),
+            (
+                "main.ts",
+                r#"import { BaseX } from "./base";
+class D extends BaseX { constructor() { super(); } }
+console.log(new D().call());
+"#,
+            ),
+        ],
+        "main.ts",
+    );
+    assert_eq!(with_ctor, "42");
+
+    let without_ctor = compile_and_run(
+        &[
+            ("base.ts", base),
+            (
+                "main.ts",
+                r#"import { BaseX } from "./base";
+class D extends BaseX {}
+console.log(new D().call());
+"#,
+            ),
+        ],
+        "main.ts",
+    );
+    assert_eq!(without_ctor, "42");
+}
+
+/// hono's own shape: the base with the private members is in one module, the
+/// subclass that `super()`s into it is an anonymous class expression in a
+/// second, and the `new` is in a third. Every link in the chain is an imported
+/// stub at the site that constructs it.
+#[test]
+fn imported_subclass_of_imported_private_method_class() {
+    let stdout = compile_and_run(
+        &[
+            (
+                "base.ts",
+                r#"const notFound = (x: string): string => "nf:" + x;
+export class BaseX {
+  pub: number;
+  #path = "/";
+  #nf = notFound;
+  constructor(options: any = {}) {
+    this.pub = 1;
+  }
+  #addRoute(m: string): string { return m + this.#path; }
+  route(m: string): string { return this.#addRoute(m) + this.#nf("!"); }
+}
+"#,
+            ),
+            (
+                "mid.ts",
+                r#"import { BaseX } from "./base";
+export const DerivedX = class extends BaseX {
+  constructor(options: any = {}) { super(options); }
+};
+"#,
+            ),
+            (
+                "main.ts",
+                r#"import { DerivedX } from "./mid";
+const a = new DerivedX();
+console.log(a.route("GET") + "|" + a.pub);
+"#,
+            ),
+        ],
+        "main.ts",
+    );
+    assert_eq!(stdout, "GET/nf:!|1");
+}
+
+/// The same class constructed INSIDE its defining module never had the bug —
+/// there the `new` site owns the field-initializer phase and installs the
+/// brand itself. Pin it, so a fix that suppressed the install unconditionally
+/// (rather than only where another module already performs it) fails here.
+#[test]
+fn same_module_construction_still_installs_the_brand() {
+    let stdout = compile_and_run(
+        &[
+            (
+                "base.ts",
+                r#"export class BaseX {
+  #m(): number { return 41; }
+  call(): number { return this.#m() + 1; }
+}
+export function make(): BaseX { return new BaseX(); }
+"#,
+            ),
+            (
+                "main.ts",
+                r#"import { make } from "./base";
+console.log(make().call());
+"#,
+            ),
+        ],
+        "main.ts",
+    );
+    assert_eq!(stdout, "42");
+}
+
+/// Double initialization must still be observable where the spec requires it:
+/// a base constructor that returns an object the derived class has already
+/// branded. This is the case `js_private_brand_add`'s duplicate check exists
+/// for, and #8962's fix must not silence it.
+#[test]
+fn genuine_double_initialization_still_throws() {
+    let dir = tempfile::tempdir().expect("tempdir");
+    let root = dir.path();
+    std::fs::write(
+        root.join("main.ts"),
+        r#"const recycled: any = {};
+class Base {
+  constructor() { return recycled; }
+}
+class Derived extends Base {
+  #m(): number { return 1; }
+  call(): number { return this.#m(); }
+}
+new Derived();
+new Derived();
+console.log("no throw");
+"#,
+    )
+    .expect("write entry");
+    let output = root.join("main_bin");
+    let compile = Command::new(perry_bin())
+        .current_dir(root)
+        .arg("compile")
+        .arg(root.join("main.ts"))
+        .arg("-o")
+        .arg(&output)
+        .env("PERRY_NO_CACHE", "1")
+        .output()
+        .expect("run perry compile");
+    assert!(
+        compile.status.success(),
+        "perry compile failed\nstderr:\n{}",
+        String::from_utf8_lossy(&compile.stderr)
+    );
+    let run = Command::new(&output).output().expect("run binary");
+    let stderr = String::from_utf8_lossy(&run.stderr);
+    let stdout = String::from_utf8_lossy(&run.stdout);
+    assert!(
+        !run.status.success() && stderr.contains("private elements twice"),
+        "expected the second construction to throw the duplicate-brand \
+         TypeError\nstatus: {:?}\nstdout:\n{stdout}\nstderr:\n{stderr}",
+        run.status.code()
+    );
+}