Japanese fashion billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has pulled out of a documentary search for a girlfriend to take on his voyage around the moon with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, citing his “mixed feelings” about participating.
The 44-year-old earlier this month announced that he was seeking single females over 20 willing to vie to become his girlfriend for a documentary to be aired on streaming service AbemaTV.
Almost 28,000 people applied.
Photo: Reuters
Maezawa said he is “extremely remorseful” about the decision to pull out, apologizing to the applicants and AbemaTV staff in posts on Twitter, where he is Japan’s most followed account with more than 7 million followers.
The founder and former chief executive of online fashion retailer Zozo, which Maezawa last year sold to Softbank Group, is known for launching big ideas with much fanfare — though some of them do not pan out as planned.
As Zozo chief executive, he launched the Zozosuit, a polka-dot bodysuit that allowed users to collect body measurements to order custom-made clothes, a product that did not work well in practice.
He also outlined an ambitious overseas expansion plan that wildly undershot targets, leading to a crash in the company’s share price.
Maezawa has pledged to give away US$9 million to his Twitter followers in what he says is a “social experiment” to see if the payment boosts their happiness.
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