Billionaire Ends Quest for Moon Trip Partner

Cancel the box of chocolates, which likely wouldn't have impressed a billionaire anyway. Japan's Yusaku Maezawa, founder of fashion retailer Zozo, says he's pulled out of a search for his "life partner" who was to accompany him on a SpaceX flight around the moon in 2023. Maezawa, 44, says he had "mixed feelings" about the love quest, which drew nearly 28,000 applicants and was to be turned into an AbemaTV documentary called Full Moon Lovers.

"To think that 27,722 women with earnest intentions and courage had used their precious time to apply makes me feel extremely remorseful to conclude and inform everyone [of] this selfish decision of mine," he wrote in a Thursday tweet, per the Verge. The BBC notes the billionaire recently split from 27-year-old actress Ayame Goriki. (More Yusaku Maezawa stories.)