Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa to be SpaceX’s first Moon tourist

Yusaku Maezawa is the 18th richest person in Japan with a fortune of $3 billion, according to Forbes magazine. He will be the first to go to the moon since 1972.

Japanese billionaire businessman, online fashion tycoon and art collector Yusaku Maezawa was revealed Monday as the first tourist who will fly on a SpaceX rocket around the Moon.

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa speaks after SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk announced him as the first private passenger on a trip around the moon, on September 17, 2018, in Hawthorne, California. (AP)

“I choose to go to the Moon,” the 42-year-old said to cheers and applause at SpaceX headquarters in California, after being introduced by the aerospace company’s CEO Elon Musk. He added he will invite 6-8 artists for the trip.

Maezawa is the 18th richest person in Japan with a fortune of $3 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

In moves typical of his publicity-seeking style, SpaceX founder Elon Musk , who is also the billionaire chief executive of electric car maker Tesla Inc, had previously teased a few tantalizing details about the trip and the passenger’s identity, but left major questions unanswered.

At the unveiling, Musk said Maezawa will fly to the moon aboard a new rocket called the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), which is still in development.

The reusable 118-meter (387-foot) rocket will have its own dedicated passenger ship.

Maezawa made his fortune by founding the wildly popular shopping site Zozotown. His company Zozo, officially called Start Today Co Ltd, also offers a made-to-measure service using a polka dot bodysuit, the Zozosuit.

The average distance from Earth to the moon is about 237,685 miles (382,500 kilometers). No one has been there since an Apollo mission in 1972.