Yusaku Maezawa

Okay, this guy operates on a completely different setting than the rest of us. Most founders cash out and buy a nice yacht; Yusaku Maezawa cashed out of ZOZO, the fashion empire he built from a mail-order CD catalog, and then literally booked himself onto a rocket. I genuinely respect that the same brain that figured out how to sell clothes online also looked at a fortune and went, "cool, let's go to the actual International Space Station." The 100-million-yen Twitter giveaways could read as a stunt, but paired with the contemporary art collecting and the supercar habit, it just reads as a man with zero interest in being boring. He started in a band on drums, ended up flipping a Ferrari around a track for fun — and somehow stays this warm, doting, generous big-brother type the whole time. Honestly, I'd love a peek at a life that allergic to the word "impossible."

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Yusaku Maezawa (born November 22, 1975, in Kamagaya, Chiba) is a Japanese entrepreneur best known as the founder of ZOZOTOWN, Japan's largest fashion e-commerce platform, which he grew from a mail-order catalog business he started in 1995. He served as President and CEO of ZOZO, Inc. from 1998 until 2019, when the company came under the umbrella of Yahoo Japan (now LY Corporation). In December 2021, he became the first Japanese private citizen to stay aboard the International Space Station, spending approximately 12 days there. He is also a noted contemporary art collector, the founder of the Contemporary Art Foundation, and in 2024 he won the Shell Am class of the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli Japan series.

Name (English)

Yusaku Maezawa

Name (Japanese)

前澤友作

Reading

まえざわゆうさく

Born

November 22, 1975 (age 50)

Origin

Kamigaya, Chiba, Japan

Occupation

Entrepreneur / Business Executive / Racing Driver / Contemporary Art Collector

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Scorpio / Rabbit

Blood type

O

Agency

Start Today Co., Ltd. (President and CEO)

Agency history

ZOZO, Inc. — President and CEO (1998–2019)

Active years

1998–present

High school

Waseda Jitsugyo High School

University

Did not attend university

Debut

Founded Start Today Co., Ltd. in 1998 and launched his entrepreneurial career; also made his major music debut the same year as drummer for the band Switch Style on BMG Japan.

Awards & achievements

• 2020 — Medal with Dark Blue Ribbon, for donations to Minamiboso City and Tateyama City

Timeline

1. 1975Born on November 22 in Kamigaya, Chiba
2. 1993Formed the band Switch Style (drums)
3. 1995Began catalog mail-order sales of imported records and CDs
4. 1998Founded Start Today Co., Ltd.; Switch Style made their major-label debut on BMG Japan
5. 2000Launched the CD and record import site STMonline and renamed the company Start Today Co., Ltd.
6. 2004Launched the fashion e-commerce site ZOZOTOWN
7. 2012Established the Contemporary Art Foundation and became its chairman
8. 2018Announced the dearMoon lunar flyby project with SpaceX; renamed Start Today Co., Ltd. to ZOZO, Inc.
9. 2019Stepped down as president of ZOZO as it came under Yahoo Japan (now LY Corporation); founded a new Start Today Co., Ltd.; gave away 100 million yen in New Year gifts on Twitter
10. 2021Became the first Japanese private citizen to stay aboard the International Space Station, for approximately 12 days in December
11. 2022Established the MZ Web3 Fund and MZDAO
12. 2023Launched the racing team MAEZAWA RACING
13. 2024Announced the cancellation of the dearMoon lunar flyby project; won the Shell Am class in the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli Japan series

Spouse

Divorced once

Children

Three sons (with two women in common-law relationships, publicly acknowledged)

Siblings

Younger brother Shuhei Maezawa (Switch Style guitarist; president of Zear Inc.)

Hobbies

• Supercar collecting
• Golf
• Contemporary art collecting
• Racing
• Antique and classical art collecting

Specialties

• Drum performance
• Entrepreneurship and business management

Filmography / notable works

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/yusaku2020/
• Xhttps://twitter.com/yousuck2020
• YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO3gOWCjoz9aeXdSUt6Fhmw
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%89%8D%E6%BE%A4%E5%8F%8B%E4%BD%9C
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8061829

Tags

• From Chiba
• ZOZO founder
• Entrepreneur
• Space travel
• Money giveaway
• Contemporary art collector
• Supercar
• Startup

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.