Japanese billionaire Yusaka Maezawa is redefining matchmaking beyond the imagination of a common man. The lonely entrepreneur, in search of his lady love, will say ‘I do’ only to the one who agrees to travel to the moon with him. By Tanvi Jain
‘Love you to the Moon and back’ — an expression you must have used for your loved one like a million times. But this Japanese billionaire has decided to take it very seriously. Yes! 44-year-old Yusaka Maezawa is looking for a female partner to accompany him to the moon.
He is the first-ever civilian passenger to go on SpaceX’s maiden tourist voyage to the moon. The mission is scheduled for 2023 and will be the first lunar journey by any human since 1972. Maezawa has expressed in an online appeal on the website mz.abema.tv, that he wants to share the experience with his ‘special woman’.
In the application form, he has mentioned his plans to find a life partner and has termed it as a serious, planned matchmaking event. The form also comes with a list of conditions based on which he will shortlist the applicants. The deadline for the application is January 17, and the result will be declared in March.
Apart from this, the website also displays a detailed account of his feelings and why this is so important for him. The whole experience will be featured on Abema TV in the form of a documentary titled ‘Full Moon Lovers’.
The announcement of this project was first made by SpaceX founder Elon Musk in September 2018 at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Maezawa also wants to take a group of artists along with him.
Yusaka Maezawa is the founder of Japanese online fashion retail store Zozotown. It is believed that his net worth is somewhere around USD 3 billion (approximately INR 200 crore). He is divorced and has three children. He has dated many celebrities, the last one being model/actor Ayame Goriki.
He dropped out of college in the late 90s to be a drummer for a rock band and later founded Start Today, a mail-order catalogue business selling rare CDs and records.
He recently made headlines for announcing USD 9 million (approximately INR 60 crore) giveaway as a social experiment to 1,000 random followers for retweeting his January 1 post. The idea is to see if the payment boosts their happiness.
In a tweet he stated, “In 2019, I did a 100 million yen giveaway on Twitter (1M yen to 100 winners). I hold the record for the most retweeted tweet. In 2020, I did a giveaway of up to 1 billion yen. This social experiment will study the effects of UBI. Will you be happier if you were given 1M yen?”
Apart from being in the news for his jaw-dropping announcements, the billionaire is also known for splurging on art and sports car.
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