Billionaire Maezawa Yusaku, former CEO of online clothing retailer ZOZO, avid art collector, and currently a record holder for the top two most retweeted tweets ever, will break yet another record in December as the first Japanese civilian to visit the International Space Station (ISS).
Maezawa recently passed the required medical tests necessary to begin astronaut training. His trip is being handled by the US-based space tourism company Space Adventures. He’ll also be accompanied by film producer Hirano Yozo who will record their trip for Maezawa’s YouTube channel. Both civilians will undergo rigorous training at Russia’s Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center starting in June. If all goes well, they’ll depart for the ISS on December 8 from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome for a 12-day trip.
In a statement issued by Space Adventures, Maezawa said, “I’m so curious: What’s life like in space? So, I am planning to find out on my own and share with the world on my YouTube channel.”
Setting His Sights on the Moon
In 2018, Maezawa made space-related headlines when SpaceX announced he’d be one of the first civilian passengers in its Starship rocket. That circumlunar mission is currently slated for a 2023 departure. As part of an art initiative called dearMoon, Maezawa also scouted for 8 additional civilian crew members to join him for this week-long Moon trip.
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He drew attention again in 2020 when he announced his quest to find a female companion to travel with him to the moon to assuage his “loneliness in middle age.” He ended up calling off the search days later after receiving over 30,000 applicants.
To say this is a costly trip is an understatement. It’s not clear exactly how much Maezawa shelled out; Space.com reports previous tourists paying anywhere between $20 million and $40 million. Being a billionaire, it’s a trip Maezawa can easily afford, and one Russia desperately needs. After NASA’s shuttle program ended in 2011, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft has been the go-to means for transporting astronauts to space. Alas, SpaceX has nabbed a pretty large corner of that market. According to HuffPost Japan, the competition cost Russia to lose roughly 90 million dollars per customer. And for that, Maezawa and Hirano are very welcome patrons.
Not the First Japanese Civilians in Space
Maezawa and Hirano are not, however, the first Japanese civilians to explore the beginnings of the final frontier. That honor went to TBS journalist Akiyama Toyohiro, who spent seven days aboard the Soviet Mir space station in 1990 as part of TBS’s extravagant plan to boost their TV ratings. He was also the first person of Japanese nationality and the first journalist to fly in space. Akiyama made live radio and television broadcasts, noted the extent of environmental damage on Earth, and conducted experiments with tree frogs. (Evidently, the fatter frogs enjoyed zero gravity much more than their thinner counterparts.)

Hopefully, no tree frogs will be involved in Maezawa’s trip, but it will be interesting to see how he spends those 12 days in space, and what exactly he’ll share on his YouTube channel. Of course, this all depends on whether he successfully completes his training. We’ll just have to wait and see.