Yusaku Maezawa
Yusaku Maezawa (前澤 友作, Maezawa Yūsaku, born 22 November 1975) is a Japanese billionaire entrepreneur and art collector. He founded Start Today in 1998 and launched the online fashion retail website Zozotown in 2004, now Japan's largest. Most recently, Maezawa introduced a custom-fit apparel brand ZOZO and at-home measurement system, the ZOZOSUIT, in 2018.[2] As of December 2021, he is estimated by Forbes to have a net worth of $2.0 billion.[1]
Yusaku Maezawa
22 November 1975
Entrepreneur, art collector
1998–present
Start Today, Zozotown, ZOZO
Divorced
1[1]
11 days, 19 hours, 34 minutes
Soyuz MS-20, dearMoon project (planned)
Early life[edit]
Maezawa began attending Waseda Jitsugyo High School in 1991, where he started a hardcore punk band with his classmates called Switch Style, in which he was the drummer.[3][4] The band released their first EP in 1993.[5] After graduating from high school, he decided not to go to college; instead he moved to the US with a girlfriend, where he started collecting CDs and records.[6] When he returned to Japan in 1995, his album collection became the basis for his first company, which sold imported albums and CDs through the mail.[3]
Contemporary Art Foundation[edit]
Maezawa is the founder of the Tokyo-based Contemporary Art Foundation, which he started in 2012 with a goal of "supporting young artists as a pillar of the next generation of contemporary art."[11] The Contemporary Art Foundation currently hosts collection shows twice a year. In May 2016, Maezawa attracted significant media attention with a record purchase price at auction of $57.3 million for an Untitled (1982) artwork of a devil by Jean-Michel Basquiat, and broke a record again in May 2017 with a $110.5 million auction for another Untitled (1982) of a skull by the same artist.[12] At the same 2016 auction, Maezawa bought pieces by Bruce Nauman, Alexander Calder, Richard Prince, and Jeff Koons, spending a total of $98 million over two days.[13] Maezawa plans to open a contemporary art museum in Chiba, which will house his collection.[11] In 2022, Maezawa sold an untitled Basquiat Painting for $85 Million.[14]
Most retweeted[edit]
On 5 January 2019, Maezawa successfully secured the most ever retweets for his Twitter message offering one million yen (approx US$9300) each to 100 randomly selected people who retweeted the message and followed him.[29] More than four million people ended up retweeting Maezawa's tweet and following him.[4]
Later that year, on 31 December, he secured the second spot in the list of most-retweeted tweets by offering one million yen (approx US$9200) each to 1000 randomly selected people who retweeted the Twitter message and followed him.[30] The message surpassed the 3 million retweets mark.