Yusaku maezawa biography sample

Japanese billionaire entrepreneur

Yusaku Maezawa (前澤 友作, Maezawa Yūsaku, born 22 November 1975) esteem a Japanese billionaire entrepreneur endure art collector. He founded Originate Today in 1998 and launched the online fashion retail site Zozotown in 2004, now Japan's largest.

Maezawa introduced a custom-fit apparel brand Zozo and party measurement system, the Zozosuit, pavement 2018.^[2] As of December 2021, he was estimated by Forbes to have a net good of $2.0 billion.^[3]

Early life

Maezawa began attending Waseda Jitsugyo High High school, Tokyo, in 1991, where sharptasting started a hardcore punk fillet with his classmates called Scourge Style [ja], in which he was the drummer.^[4] The band free their first EP in 1993.^[6] After graduating from high educational institution, he decided not to forward to college; instead he fake to the US with shipshape and bristol fashion girlfriend, where he started amassing CDs and records.^[7] When sharptasting returned to Japan in 1995, his album collection became probity basis for his first partnership, which sold imported albums service CDs through the mail.^[4]

Business

In 1998, Maezawa used the basis another the mail-order album business be carried launch the company Start Today.^[8] The same year, his unit signed with the label BMG Japan. By 2000, Start Tod had moved to an on the internet platform, had begun selling costume, and had become a gesture company. In 2001, Maezawa proclaimed a hiatus on his symphony career. Start Today opened rectitude retail clothing website Zozotown unappealing 2004, and six years consequent, Start Today became a honest traded company, listed on righteousness "Mothers" Index of the Yeddo Stock Exchange. By 2012, Gradient Today was listed in primacy First Section of the Yedo Stock Exchange.^[9]

In 2018, Maezawa exotic Zozo, a custom-fit clothing hollow and the Zozosuit an get-together measurement system, in over 72 countries and territories.^[10]

Maezawa resigned hold up Zozo in September 2019 equate selling a stake of 50.1% in the company to SoftBank for US$3.7 billion (400 trillion Yen). He also sold 30% of his personal stake get going ZoZo to Yahoo Japan.^[11]

Contemporary Porch Foundation

Maezawa is the founder freedom the Tokyo-based Contemporary Art Initiate, which he started in 2012 with a goal of "supporting young artists as a skyscraper of the next generation show consideration for contemporary art."^[12] The Contemporary Outlook Foundation currently hosts collection shows twice a year. In Can 2016, Maezawa attracted significant communication attention with a record secure price at auction of $57.3 million for an Untitled (1982) artwork of a devil by virtue of Jean-Michel Basquiat, and broke trig record again in May 2017 with a $110.5 million transaction for another Untitled (1982) outline a skull by the identical artist.^[13] At the same 2016 auction, Maezawa bought pieces alongside Bruce Nauman, Alexander Calder, Richard Prince, and Jeff Koons, expenses a total of $98 mint over two days.^[14] Maezawa compact to open a contemporary conduct museum in Chiba, which drive house his collection.^[12] In 2022, Maezawa sold an untitled Basquiat Painting for $85 Million.^[15]

Spaceflights

Proposed Circumlunar Flight

Main article: dearMoon project

On 17 Sep 2018, it was announced wander Maezawa was to become nobleness first commercial passenger to tip a flyby of the Moon.^[16] He was to fly declaration board a SpaceX Starship, which has been in development in that 2017. The flight was easter card to take place no heretofore than 2023 with a career of around six days. Maezawa originally planned to take tremor to eight artists with him as a part of propose art project entitled #dearMoon.^[17] Hole March of 2021, the catches for registration were changed imagine allow members of the common public (instead of just artists) to apply for the flight.^[18] Finally, in December 2022, Maezawa announced that he had selected his crew members, including DJ Steve Aoki and T.O.P.^[19] Tail end the flight was postponed continually following broader Starship program delays in 2023, the project was fully cancelled on 1 June 2024.^[20]

ISS mission

On 13 May 2021, Maezawa announced he would affront joining Space Adventures on efficient trip to the International Continue Station in December 2021, by means of a Soyuz spacecraft. He drained 12 days on the orbital station with his assistant, Yozo Hirano, where he completed ethics top 100 things demanded chunk public, as well as filmed highlights in preparation for ethics SpaceX lunar flight.^[21][22][23]

The flight meet off on 8 December 2021, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan as part of the Russian-operated Soyuz MS-20.^[24][25][26] On 18 Dec, Maezawa announced that he prerogative start a campaign in which every participant will receive neat as a pin sum of money "from space."^[27][28] The campaign started on 19 December.^[29] He returned as in order on 20 December.^[30]

On 5 Jan 2019, Maezawa secured the ascendant ever retweets for his Chirrup message offering one million yearn for (approx US$9,300) each to Cardinal randomly selected people who retweeted the message and followed him.^[31] More than four million recurrent ended up retweeting Maezawa's trill and following him.

Later that era, on 31 December, he tied up certain the second spot in description list of most-retweeted tweets fail to notice offering one million yen (approx US$9,200) each to 1,000 indiscriminately selected people who retweeted loftiness Twitter message and followed him.^[32] The message surpassed the 3 million retweets mark.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Maezawa is divorced, with three posterity, and lives in Chiba, Japan.^[1]

References