Former Zozo fashion retailer Yusaku Maezawa seeks girlfriend for 2023 SpaceX voyage

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2020/11/25 20:20

Today's Vocabulary

1. dubbed (v)
to give something or someone a particular name, especially describing what you think of it, him, or her

2. split (n)  
a situation in which a group of people is divided into smaller groups because they disagree about something

3. bachelor (n)
a man who has never married

4. surge (v)
to increase suddenly and strongly

5. entrepreneur (n)
someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves seeing a new opportunity

6. stunt (n)
something that is done to get attention for the person or people responsible for it

7. voyage (v)
to travel

Former Zozo fashion retailer Yusaku Maezawa seeks girlfriend for 2023 SpaceX voyage

Call it “The Bachelor: Lunar Edition.”

In the latest attention-grabbing stunt by Japanese entrepreneur and billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, his search for a girlfriend to join him on a voyage around the moon will be the subject of a new documentary program.

Maezawa, 44, who sold his online fashion retailer Zozo Inc. to SoftBank Group Corp., is seeking single women over 20 for the show, which will be shown on streaming service AbemaTV.

“As feelings of loneliness and emptiness slowly begin to surge upon me, there’s one thing that I think about: continuing to love one woman,” wrote Maezawa on a website for applicants.

“I want to find a ‘life partner.’ With that future partner of mine, I want to shout our love and world peace from outer space,” continued Maezawa, who is due to fly around the moon in 2023 as the first private passenger with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Maezawa, who recently split from actress girlfriend Ayame Goriki, 27, had said that he intends to take a combination of painters, musicians, dancers, photographers, film directors, fashion designers and architects on a weeklong lunar lap, where he’ll get to watch as they get inspired and create art along the way. He has dubbed the project “Dear Moon.”

The documentary on his search for romance, set to be titled “Full Moon Lovers,” will stream on AbemaTV, which is backed by online ad agency CyberAgent and broadcaster TV Asahi and targets a younger audience that is turning away from traditional TV.

Applicants must “be interested in going into space and able to participate in the preparation for it” and “be someone who wishes for world peace,” the website states.

Resource: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/01/13/national/former-zozo-fashion-retailer-yusaku-maezawa-seeks-girlfriend-2023-spacex-voyage/

Discussion
  1. What do you think of the phrase ‘I love you to the moon and back’?
  2. What would you do if you were a billionaire?
  3. What kind of person is your ideal life partner?
  4. How good is going to the moon for a first date?

"Space travel is life-enhancing, and anything that's life-enhancing is worth doing. It makes you want to live forever."

Ray Bradbury