Japan fashion billionaire Maezawa picked by SpaceX for moon flight

The first private passenger to travel around the moon has been named by Elon Musk’s space transportation company, SpaceX.

It will be Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, the founder and chief executive of online fashion retailer Zozo.

Maezawa's moon flight is tentatively planned for 2023 aboard SpaceX's forthcoming Big Falcon Rocket spaceship, according to Reuters.

Maezawa's identity was revealed at an event on Monday evening at the company's headquarters and rocket factory in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne.

He will be the first person to travel to the moon since the United States' Apollo missions ended in 1972.

The Japanese billionaire is most famous outside Japan for his record-breaking $110 million purchase of an untitled 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat painting.

The trip into space will provide welcome publicity for his company Zozo, which has ambitious overseas sale targets to be driven by its custom-made private clothing line.

Maezawa made his fortune by founding the wildly popular shopping site Zozotown. His company Zozo, officially called Start Today Co Ltd, also offers a made-to-measure service using a polka dot bodysuit, the Zozosuit.