Japanese fashion magnate Yusaku Maezawa is buying robotics startup Groove X, which makes an "affectionate" companion robot, saying on Tuesday he was drawn by its ability to "make people feel happy". A fund owned by Maezawa has taken a majority stake in the startup, founded by an alumni of SoftBank Group Corp.'s robotics business, and will move to full ownership in April, Groove X said, without providing further detail. Lovot, an amalgam of "love" and "robot", has wheels and resembles a penguin with cartoonish human eyes. It has interchangeable outfits and communicates in squeaks. Lovot "can't clean or do work but I see big potential in a presence that can make people feel happy, particularly at this time," Maezawa said in the statement.

The Japanese billionaire who will head off into space on one of Elon Musk's rockets says he "trusts" him, despite the various problems he has run into. Mr Musk has been repeatedly criticised for sending joking tweets that launched a federal investigation, for promoting unfounded allegations against the British diver who helped save children from an underground cave, and further personal troubles. But Yusaku Maezawa said he respects and trusts his fellow billionaire and that he is looking forward to the trip. "Twitter can get you into trouble," Maezawa, chief executive of Zozo Inc, said Tuesday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Tokyo. "And that can be said of Elon Musk, too."

During SpaceX's BFR / BFS lunar event, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa discusses why he wants to take six to eight artists with him to the moon. The newest designs for SpaceX's Big Falcon Rocket and Big Falcon Spaceship, which were unveiled at SpaceX's headquarters on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018. Rather, it was how much it looks like spaceships of our imaginations. Landing vertically with three big fins, the BFR, as the rocket has been dubbed, looks somewhat like so many of those finned spaceships landing on distant planets in old science-fiction movies -- not like the more ungainly craft seen in films like in "2001: A Space Odyssey" or even in real life, like the lunar lander that delivered Neil Armstrong to the moon in 1969. As turns out, Musk, the billionaire who is CEO of the rocket maker as well as Tesla, the electric car maker, said looks played a role, not just functionality, in the design. "There's more than one way to solve this problem," he said.