Maezawa Yusaku answers criticism on spending 10 billion yen (nearly $88 million US) to go to outer space

ZOZO founder and one of the world’s most wealthy individuals, Maezawa Yusaku, had dreamed of going to space and now it has become a reality.

Maezawa is currently in space at the International Space Station for a 12-day stay while being accompanied by a production assistant, Hirano Yozo who will document the businessman in space.

The wealthy businessman launched to space from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz rocket along with Russian astronaut, Alexander Misurkin.

Maezawa was interviewed from the International Space Station by JNN on the evening news program “N-STA” broadcast on TBS on December 14th.

Maezawa was asked how he was doing and replied, “I had a little trouble with motion sickness, but from the 4th day onward, I got used to the state of weightlessness, and I feel like I am living my daily life. If you don’t really see it with your own eyes and feel it with your own body, you can’t understand things. I’m 46 years old. I feel it”.

It has been documented that Maezawa had been training to go to space for months.

When asked about the criticism that he spent 10 billion yen (equivalent to $87.968 million US) to go to outerspace to cover him and his production assistant, Maezawa replied, “I don’t know what’s wrong with going on a trip with my own money. It doesn’t have to be profitable”.

Maezawa departed to space on December 8th and arrived at the International Space Station and is scheduled to return back on December 20th.