What just happened? A Japanese billionaire has canceled plans to find a girlfriend to take into space on a private SpaceX flight. Yusaku Maezawa, who is estimated to have a $2 billion fortune and is the 22nd richest person in Japan, was to choose a “life partner” in a matchmaking documentary called "Full Moon Lovers."
Back in 2018, Maezawa, who founded Japanese online clothing retailer Zozotown, had been named as the first passenger on Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket flight around the moon, which is scheduled to take place in 2023. His original idea was to take several artists on the journey. “They will be asked to create something after they return to Earth. These masterpieces will inspire the dreamer within all of us,” he said, but later changed his plans.
Maezawa had sent out an online invite asking single women over the age of 20 to apply for a “match-making event.” It attracted almost 28,000 applicants, but they’ll be disappointed to learn that the search is now off. The 44-year-old has blamed “personal reasons” for the cancelation of the show.
Despite my genuine and honest determination toward the show, there was a part of me that still had mixed feelings about my participation.
— Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) 前澤友作 (@yousuck2020) January 30, 2020
“Despite my genuine and honest determination toward the show, there was a part of me that still had mixed feelings about my participation,” he tweeted. “To think that 27,722 women, with earnest intentions and courage, had used their precious time to apply makes me feel extremely remorseful to conclude and inform everyone with this selfish decision of mine.”
Last year, Maezawa used his fortune to gain the world’s most retweeted post. He achieved the feat by promising to give 1 million yen (around $9,180) to 100 randomly selected people who retweeted him. The message ended up being retweeted over 4.6 million times.
ZOZOTOWN新春セールが史上最速で取扱高100億円を先ほど突破！！日頃の感謝を込め、僕個人から100名様に100万円【総額1億円のお年玉】を現金でプレゼントします。応募方法は、僕をフォローいただいた上、このツイートをRTするだけ。受付は1/7まで。当選者には僕から直接DMします！ #月に行くならお年玉 pic.twitter.com/cKQfPPbOI3
— Yusaku Maezawa (MZ) 前澤友作 (@yousuck2020) January 5, 2019
