Japanese Billionaire cancels hunt for girlfriend to accompany him to the moon

Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire who launched a public search campaign for a girlfriend to accompany him on an exclusive trip to the moon cancelled his campaign on Thursday, despite attracting nearly 30,000 applicants as per the reports.

Earlier this month, Yusaku had publicly announced in the media that he was looking for a soulmate to join him for a unique voyage into space by the year 2023 or later as he was the first private passenger offered to travel to the moon by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

He has also reportedly claimed that the hunt for his better half will be telecasted as a Television show for a web-streaming service.  On Thursday, Maezawa shattered the hopes of thousands of women as he abruptly called off his search citing "personal reasons."

“Despite my genuine and honest determination toward the show, there was a part of me that still had mixed feelings about my participation," he wrote on his Twitter account. "To think that 27,722 women, with earnest intentions and courage, had used their precious time to apply makes me feel extremely remorseful," he added in his tweet on the microblogging site.

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He offered a one million yen (£6,991) to 1,000 followers

Maezawa, who recently hit the headlines for splitting with the girlfriend Ayame Goriki, who is also a renowned actor, has garnered almost seven million followers on Twitter due to his unusual search campaign. According to the reports, he was formerly chief of the online fashion company Zozo, and is known for his periodic publicity stunts on the social media that range from offering cash to people on social media websites to launching peculiar initiatives.

He had reportedly declared the beginning of the new year that he would offer a one million yen (£6,991) cash prize to 1,000 followers that retweeted his post from New Year's Day, choosing the individual randomly for the mega jackpot. He said that the usage of the cash prize would be tracked through regular surveys.       

Maezawa had said in a video on YouTube that his cash prize offer was for a cause, adding that he wanted to evoke the interest from academics and economists to jump on the wagon and have a meaningful discussion with him. 

The entrepreneur of the company Zozo Inc reportedly claimed that he secured the cash £688,863,420-by disposing of off his firm to SoftBank Group Corp.

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