Japanese fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa is giving away US$9 million to his Twitter followers in what he has said is a “social experiment” to see if the payment boosts their happiness.
Maezawa is to give ¥1 million (US$9,000) to 1,000 followers selected at random from those who retweeted a Jan. 1 post, with the effects of the money to be tracked through regular surveys.
“It’s a serious social experiment,” said Maezawa on YouTube, adding that he hopes to attract interest from academics and economists.
Photo: Reuters
Maezawa, who is to be the first private passenger to fly around the moon with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is known for his high spending on art and sports cars, but also has a predilection for musing on ideas like a world without money.
He tied the giveaway to the idea of basic income, or the theory of providing a periodic no-strings-attached payment to all citizens, that has gained traction in some political circles and is backed by Democratic US presidential hopeful Andrew Yang (楊安澤).
“Basic means a regular minimum amount offering a sense of security, what Maezawa is offering is totally different,” said Toshihiro Nagahama, senior economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo.
Maezawa said that given that he “has the money and free time” to make the payments, he felt the need to try and inspire greater debate over the merits of the theory.
The idea of a universal basic income has gained support over fears technology such as artificial intelligence will wipe out large numbers of jobs, but that concern is for now less pronounced in Japan with its tight labor market, Nagahama said.
It is the second, larger, giveaway by the entrepreneur, who in November last year secured a US$900 million payday through the sale of his online fashion business Zozo Inc to Softbank Group Corp.
Maezawa, who recently grabbed headlines after his split from actress girlfriend Ayame Goriki, has gathered almost 7 million followers on Twitter with his mix of displays of conspicuous consumption and folksy pronouncements on the meaning of life.
YouTube is the latest online outlet for the businessman, with videos including a tour of his private jet, a visit to the barber to dye his hair and updating his bank book after November’s windfall.
The debate over basic income comes as income inequality continues to grow in the US, where in recent years some of its wealthiest entrepreneurs, from Microsoft Corp cofounder Bill Gates to investor Warren Buffet, have pledged to give away most of their wealth.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last