(September 15, 1964)
Central Committee of the Japanese Communist Party

Dear Comrades:

October 1, 1964, will mark the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China cordially invites the Central Committee of the Japanese Communist Party to send a delegation to attend the ceremonies celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of the PRC.

We are firmly convinced that the presence of the Japanese Communist Party’s delegation will help strengthen the fighting friendship and fraternal ties between our two parties and our two peoples.

It is our sincere hope that the Central Committee of the Japanese Communist Party will accept this invitation. As for the size of the delegation and which level of leadership will head it, we leave that entirely to your own discretion. We look forward to receiving notification of the composition of the Japanese Communist Party’s delegation at an early date.

With communist greetings,

Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

September 15, 1964

[I]
Identical letters of invitation were also sent to the central committees of the communist parties of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaya (now Malaysia), Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), as well as to the Central Committee of the Labor Party of Vietnam.

Photo courtesy of the archives
In 1964, Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, and Zhu De met with Masao Shimizu and Itsuko Matsuyama of the Matsuyama Ballet Company of Japan.