Who Is Yusaku Maezawa? Japanese Billionaire Sets Retweet Record

When Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa sent out a tweet on Saturday requesting people to share his post, he received a whopping 4 million retweets as a response. The tweet from the clothing retailer promised 100 million yen to be shared among 100 randomly selected people that would help to share the tweet.

Maezawa now leads the pack as the most shared tweet beating out Carter Wilkinson’s 2017 request to receive a year of free Wendy’s chicken nuggets. Wilkinson reached half a million shares on Twitter, a far cry from the 4 million Maezawa has amassed.

The tweet from Maezawa read simply, "To participate , all you have to do is follow me and RT this tweet."

The post seemly appeared to be in honor of his website Zozotown reaching 10 billion yen in sales from Christmas to New Year’s, BBC reported. Zozotown is Japan’s largest online fashion mall founded by Maezawa.

Maezawa, 43, has a diverse and interesting background, first becoming known as the drummer in punk band Switch Style. He went by the name YOU X SUCK and released an EP in 1995.

He made the majority of his fortune in the fashion industry and is thought to have a personal wealth of close to $3 billion, BBC reported. He is the 18th richest person in Japan, according to reports.

Born in Japan’s eastern Chiba prefecture, Maezawa owns about 38 percent of the company Start Today, where he got his start selling CDs and records by mail from his home in 1998, Business Insider reported.

Maezawa then moved to selling clothing online, opening Zozotown and Wear – the two largest clothing retailers in Japan, according to Business Insider. He then went on to create a 3D measuring system with ZOZO that is mailed to a customer’s home to take their personal measurements. The ZOZO is now available in 72 countries and territories.

Maezawa is an avid modern art collector. He told Forbes in 2017 that he plans to build a museum in Chiba, Japan. In 2016, he spent $110.5 million on a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat – the most ever spent on a U.S. artist at auction.

He was the first private passenger to fly around the moon with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The price of the space ticket was not disclosed, but Musk did say it was, “a lot of money.”

Maezawa also has plans for another moon flight where he has said he plans to take a group of artists with him in 2023.