“What I’m most looking forward to is to see my home planet, the big blue Earth, with my own eyes. And then, after coming out from the dark side of the moon, we may be able to see the ‘Earthrise’.

“I want to satisfy my curiosity by seeing something I’ve never seen, going somewhere I’ve never been. Second, I want to remind myself just how amazing our planet really is. I want to express my appreciation for this extraordinary planet I call home. Lastly, I want to be reminded of how small and how insignificant I am.”

02:11

‘Free tickets to the moon’: Japanese billionaire seeks eight companions for SpaceX lunar trip

‘Free tickets to the moon’: Japanese billionaire seeks eight companions for SpaceX lunar trip

Maezawa’s path to space travel has been a roller coaster. He was born in Kamagaya in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo. After graduating from the prestigious Waseda Jitsugyo high school, he seemed destined for a life of corporate success. Instead, he started a rock band. Switch Style was influenced by other indie, punk and rock bands of the time. Maezawa played drums and the band released an EP in 1993.

Then, instead of applying for a place at university, Maezawa followed his girlfriend to the United States.

Recalling his decision during an interview with President magazine in 2014, he said he rejected the conventional path “after seeing all the tired faces [of salarymen] on my morning commutes”.

In the US, he started collecting records and CDs of his favourite musicians, whose work was often difficult to find and always expensive in Japan. After returning in 1995, the collection served as the basis for his mail-order business selling imported music. After setting up his first company, Start Today, in 1998, Maezawa quickly embraced the potential of online retail.

The demands of the business convinced Maezawa to put his musical ambitions on hold in 2001. He launched the Zozotown clothing website in 2004 and within eight years his umbrella company was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Maezawa resigned from the company in September 2019 after selling a controlling stake of 50.1 per cent of his shares to Softbank for a cool 400 billion yen (US$3.7 billion). Another 30 per cent of his stake was sold to Yahoo Japan.

With time on his hands and money in the bank, Maezawa indulged his passion for modern art. He founded the Contemporary Art Foundation in 2012 to support emerging talent.

Maezawa had long harboured ambitions of opening a private museum near his home in Chiba Prefecture and stunned the art world in May 2016 with a lucrative spending spree. He paid an eye-watering US$57.2 million at auction for a work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, a record for the artist. He also paid US$13.9 million for a Christopher Wool work, US$6.9 million for Jeff Koons’ Lobster and US$9.7 million for Richard Prince’s Runaway Nurse.

At a Sotheby’s auction in 2017, he broke his own record for the amount paid for a Basquiat piece, handing over US$110.5 million for an untitled work.

“I am happy to announce I just won this masterpiece,” he wrote on Instagram. “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.”

Why does Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa want a partner?

He is also renowned for his charitable actions. He donated US$1 million to the reconstruction of the stadium of the Chiba Lotte Marines baseball team and in 2012 introduced a six-hour working day at his company so employees could spend more time with their families or pursuing hobbies.

Although notoriously private, Maezawa has previously been linked romantically to actress and model Saeko Dokyu. He is reportedly divorced and the father of at least one and possibly three children.