Japan Billionaire Launches Recruitment for Moon Travel

Japnese billionaire entrepreneur Maezawa Yusaku is once again tapping into the public sphere to further his personal pursuits, this time for the recruitment of co-travelers in a trip around the moon.

Eight crew members will be chosen for a private SpaceX flight around the moon in 2023, according to the founder of Japanese digital retail giant Zozo in a video posted on Twitter.

Including Maezawa himself, the six-day trip will involve 10 to 12 people in total. Screening of applicants kicks off on March 21 with the final interviews and medical check targeted for May.

According to Maezawa, the crew members will be selected based on how they use the trip to «push the envelope» in their respective fields and their willingness to support fellow crew members.

Maezawa added that he was looking for people of all backgrounds and that that he hoped they would make the trip «fun» together.

This is not the first time that the high-profiled Maezawa has attracted public interest.

Last year, he randomly selected 1,000 of his Twitter followers to donate more than $9,000 each to test for actual boosts in happiness from monetary gains. In 2017, he paid $110.5 million for 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat painting Untitled – an amount that broke his last record set in May 2016 for a mother untitled Basquiat valued at $57 million.