Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, the man chosen to be SpaceX's first private passenger, said on Tuesday that he would like others to join him on his trip around the moon, though he had yet to extend any invitations.

Maezawa had earlier indicated he would invite six to eight artists to join him on the lunar flyby. Only 24 astronauts have flown beyond Earth's protective magnetic shield, in missions spanning a four-year period from December 1968 to December 1972.

"Just imagining that makes me cry," he told reporters in Tokyo.

He did not disclose how much money he had put down as deposit for the opportunity and declined to comment on the cost of the project.

Maezawa, the founder and chief executive of online fashion retailer Zozo, is most famous outside Japan for his record-breaking $110 million purchase of an untitled 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat painting.