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Sep 01, 2023

Meet Yusaku Maezawa, the Billionaire Giving Away $9 Million on Twitter

When most billionaires want to fund scientific research, they donate to universities or hospitals. Not Yusaku Maezawa. In a New Year's Day tweet, the Japanese fashion tycoon announced that he would

When most billionaires want to fund scientific research, they donate to universities or hospitals. Not Yusaku Maezawa.

In a New Year's Day tweet, the Japanese fashion tycoon announced that he would give away $9 million to a group of his Twitter followers to see if money really does make people happier, Reuters reported. Maezawa, 44, previously made headlines for buying out SpaceX's first flight around the moon for himself and a group of artists in 2018.

Keep reading to learn how the eccentric billionaire made and spends his fortune.

Maezawa still lives in Chiba, according to Forbes.

5歳の時にすでに8段飛んでたらしい笑。 When I was 5 years old. This is not Donald Judd😁

A post shared by Yusaku Maezawa (@yusaku2020) on Mar 16, 2018 at 3:44pm PDTMar 16, 2018 at 3:44pm PDT

He also has an apartment in Tokyo's ritzy Hiroo district, according to The Times.

In a 2004 interview, Maezawa said that "seeing all the tired faces on my morning commutes" inspired him to forgo college and a traditional white-collar job after graduating from Japan's prestigious Waseda Jitsugyo High School, according to The Daily Beast. Maezawa briefly moved to the United States with his then-girlfriend, before returning to Japan.

Maezawa turned his passion for music into his first business, launching a CD and record mail-order business in 1995, The Daily Beast reported. The first albums Maezawa sold were from the personal collection he built up while living in the United States.

At the time, Maezawa went by the stage name YOU X SUCK as the drummer for 1990s punk rock band Switch Style, Conde Nast Traveler reported. The name lives on his Twitter handle, @yousuck2020.

In videos from the group's 1997 "....TO INFINITY" tour, Maezawa can be seen headbanging while playing the drums. The group released an EP in 1995 and subsequently another four albums before Maezawa announced that he was taking a break from music in 2001, according to Discogs.

Zozo's clothing brands are extremely popular among Japanese youth but little known outside the country. Sales topped $1 billion in 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Yahoo Japan acquired a majority stake in Zozo in September 2019 for ¥400 billion ($3.65 billion), according to The Japan Times. Maezawa stepped down as Zozo's CEO as a part of the deal.

Maezawa founded the company, then called Start Today, in 1998, according to Forbes. Zozo began as an online retail business platform and started selling clothing in 2000. Maezawa didn't abandon his musical roots until 2005, when Zozo stopped selling albums; he severed the music division of the company that year "as some of the music they handled were not suitable for the company image in going public," he explained, according to The Daily Beast.

‪採寸ボディースーツ「ZOZOSUIT」を無料配布します。ZOZOTOWNにて予約開始。一瞬であなたの体型を採寸できます。プライベートブランドでの活用はもちろん、ZOZOTOWNでのお買い物も圧倒的に便利に。川上から川下まで、ボディーデータ利用でファッション産業を新次元に導きます。‬ ‪ZOZOSUITは、街頭やコラボ企業経由等、圧倒的な速度で世界中で無料で配りまくり、体重計や体温計のように一家に一台の存在にします。そして、世界中のお客様の体型を最も知り尽くした企業となり、そのデータを元に一人一人にピッタリの服を提供する、世界でも類を見ないファッション企業を目指します。‬ http://zozo.jp/zozosuit I’m happy to announce the ZOZOSUIT, a revolutionary new device that can accurately measure your body for perfect fitting clothes. Preorder now!! http://zozosuit.com #ZOZOSUIT #ZOZOTOWN

A post shared by Yusaku Maezawa (@yusaku2020) on Nov 21, 2017 at 7:18pm PSTNov 21, 2017 at 7:18pm PST

The service, called ZOZO, gave customers a free bodysuit covered with sensors that worked with an app to take their exact measurements, according to the Wall Street Journal. The brand folded in August 2019, as "users felt the suits were simply too cumbersome to use, given that they were mostly ordering casual clothing that didn't need a perfect fit," The Journal reported.

Maezawa has since turned his attention to a new product — Zozomat, according to The Journal. Zozomat is a paper sheet that can take custom measurements of user's feet so they can order bespoke shoes from select brands.

"I believe everyone will be able to measure their precise body size within the next few years," Maezawa told The Journal. "The hard part is how to make things once that happens. [Making custom clothes quickly] is going to be an absolute requirement in the fashion industry. If you can deliver custom clothes within a week, customers may be willing to wait. Then there won't be excess inventory, there won't be waste, and there won't be excessive discounts."

breakfast meeting with Jack Dorsey

A post shared by Yusaku Maezawa (@yusaku2020) on Mar 10, 2018 at 8:01am PSTMar 10, 2018 at 8:01am PST

Forbes estimates that his net worth is $2 billion.

Maezawa bought pieces from Adrian Ghenie, Jeff Koons, Christopher Woo, and a $57.3 million for a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting during the two-day shopping spree at Sotheby's, according to The Japan Times.

In May 2017, Maezawa broke records by spending $110.5 million for another Jean-Michel Basquiat painting called "Untitled," the largest amount ever paid for at auction for a US artist, according to The Chicago Tribune.

"I am happy to announce that I just won this masterpiece," he wrote on Instagram after the auction. "When I first encountered this painting, I was struck with so much excitement and gratitude for my love of art. I want to share that experience with as many people as possible."

Maezawa plans to build a museum in Chiba to share his art with the public, according to Forbes. For now, much of Maezawa's collection, including the $22.6 million "Buste de Femme" by Picasso and a $6 million sculpture by Alexander Calder, are displayed in his Toyko apartment, according to The Times.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has described Maezawa as incredibly brave and said Maezawa's desire to participate in and pay for this trip restored Musk's faith in humanity.

"This is going to be dangerous. This is no walk in the park," Business Insider previously reported that Musk said of the mission.

He added: "It's not 100% certain that we succeed in getting this to flight ... But we're going to do everything humanly possible to bring it to flight as fast as we can and as safely as we can."

It's unclear how much the moon's first space tourist paid for access to the lunar flight, though Musk has said Maezawa is "paying a lot of money that would help with the ship and its booster," Business Insider reported.

"He's ultimately paying for the average citizen to travel to other planets," Musk said.

"One day when I was staring at his painting, I thought, 'What if Basquiat had gone to space and had seen the moon — what wonderful masterpiece would he have created?'" Maezawa said, according to CNET.

Maezawa said the artists will be part of a project called #dearmoon, which will involve them creating work inspired by their lunar journey.

Maezawa shared an application for the position on Twitter Sunday with the text: "[WANTED!!!] Why not be the 'first woman' to travel to the moon?"

The search will be chronicled in "Yusaku Maezawa's serious matchmaking documentary" called "Full Moon Lovers," Business Insider reported. Criteria for applicants include being over 20 years old, having an interest in space travel, and being "someone who wishes for world peace."

The deadline for applications is January 17, and Maezawa aims to have selected a partner to take to the moon by March this year, according to the website.

Maezawa tweeted that he would give $9,000 to 1,000 of his Twitter followers who retweeted a particular message, Reuters reported.

It is now the second most retweeted tweet in Twitter's history, according to MarketWatch. The most retweeted tweet ever also came from Maezawa. The 2019 tweet was advertising a similar, but smaller-scale giveaway, offering 100 of his followers a share of 100 million Japanese yen ($923,000 at the time), according to CNBC.

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