The legend of Yusaku Maezawa, the “10 billion yen space traveler,” who went from handing out money to dating actresses
On December 8, a Soyuz rocket carrying Mr. Yusaku Maezawa, the former president of ZOZO, took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
He will be the first Japanese civilian to stay at the ISS and then orbit the moon. This will be the first time for a Japanese civilian to orbit the moon.
The detailed cost of the trip has not been disclosed, but it is said to be more than 10 billion yen for the two of them, including the employees who will accompany them. Mr. Maezawa started training in June this year to prepare for this day,” said a reporter from a national newspaper.
Mr. Maezawa is a businessman who launched the fashion site “ZOZO TOWN” and turned it into one of the largest apparel shopping sites in Japan. Although he sold his shares and left the company in 2007, his assets are said to be over 200 billion yen.
In January 2007, just before he left ZOZO, he announced on Twitter that he was going to give away 1 million yen to 100 people, which was recognized as a Guinness record for the number of retweets. Since then, he has been “handing out money” on a frequent basis, and calls himself the “Money Giving Uncle. (IT journalist) “There are pros and cons, but I think Mr. Maezawa is the first person who is bold enough to distribute money so openly and continuously.
(IT journalist) Mr. Maezawa is not only financially dynamic, but his relationship with women is also out of the ordinary.
His motto is ‘polygamy,’ and he has never been married. His motto is ‘polygamy,’ and he has never been married, but he is aware of his children and pays their living expenses. He also meets his children regularly and seems to love them very much.
Mr. Maezawa has caused a stir in the weekly magazines and wide shows more than once. He has been linked to a number of celebrities.
In ’15, it was reported that he was dating model Saeko, and the two even announced their relationship at their company’s year-end party and were said to be about to get married. However, it ended in 2005. The following year, a scoop came out about Ayame Tsuyoshi, who was 17 years younger than the couple and was not involved in any scandals at the time, which took the world by surprise.
She and Tsuyoshi had a dinner date at a members-only restaurant in a luxury foreign car called “ZOZO Bach” which costs over 20 million yen. They also went to the Soccer World Cup in Russia in a private jet, showing off their “celebrity dating” skills to the fullest.
I’m sure you’ve heard of it. But about a year later, they broke up for the second time.
Moreover, it was rumored that the reason for the breakup was because she “didn’t want to go to the moon. If this is true, it means that he chose his dream after weighing space travel and his girlfriend.
In Chiba Prefecture, where he is from, he is building a mansion that is said to be worth 10 billion yen. Mr. Maezawa is also very fond of his hometown, buying a 26,000 tsubo plot of land in Minamiboso City, where a hotel and camping ground are located, for 400 million yen, and paying 2 billion yen in hometown taxes to Tateyama City, which was hit by a typhoon. I wonder what the Boso Peninsula looks like to him from space…
PHOTO: Takao Kawakami (2nd photo), Keisuke Nishi (3rd, 4th, 5th photos), Afro (6th photo)