Early Life and Education
Yusaku Maezawa was born on November 22, 1975, in Kamagaya, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. He attended Waseda Jitsugyo High School, where he formed a hardcore punk band called Switch Style. After graduating, Maezawa chose not to attend college, instead moving to the United States with his girlfriend.
Rise to Success
In 1995, Maezawa returned to Japan and used his collection of CDs and records to launch his first business, which sold imported albums and CDs through mail order. This initial venture laid the groundwork for his future entrepreneurial success. In 1998, he founded Start Today, which he later transformed into an online platform. Start Today opened the retail clothing website Zozotown in 2004, which became Japan's largest online fashion retail website. The company went public in 2010 and was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Key Business Strategies
Maezawa's key business strategies included expanding into online retail and leveraging the growing e-commerce market. He introduced Zozo, a custom-fit clothing brand, and the Zozosuit, an at-home measurement system, which further innovated the fashion industry. In 2019, he sold a significant stake in Zozo to Yahoo Japan, stepping down as CEO to pursue new ventures, including space travel and art collection.
Philanthropy
Maezawa established the Contemporary Art Foundation in 2012 to support young artists and promote contemporary art. He has also contributed to other charitable causes. In 2020, he gave away $9 million to his Twitter followers as part of a “social experiment” to study universal basic income.