Photo/Illutration Tetsuzo Fuwa, former chair of the central committee of the Japanese Communist Party, in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Sept. 22, 2017 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

“I may be able to go and see Marx soon,” was said to be a joke that Mao Zedong (1893-1976) often told his guests in his later years.

And he indeed did tell it when he received a visiting Japanese Communist Party (JCP) delegation in Shanghai in 1966, as chronicled by a delegation member, Tetsuzo Fuwa, who was 36 at the time.

But the meeting’s genial atmosphere turned abruptly icy when the JCP rejected China’s proposal for a joint communique, due mainly to differences in their respective Soviet policies.

Mao told the JCP delegation to the effect, “We have nothing more to talk about.” The negotiations fell apart.

It was on the eve of the Cultural Revolution, which would shake the entire nation. And the CCP and the JCP severed their relationship then.

When the parties eventually reconciled 32 years later in 1998, Fuwa was the chairman of the JCP.

With the end of the Cold War, communist parties around the world were concerned about their futures.

When Fuwa visited Beijing a while later, he said that the CCP and the JCP had reached the joint conclusion that their futures were bright.

Fuwa smiled at reporters, as if testing them.

A true intellectual who read “Das Kapital” in its original German, Fuwa was the party’s theoretical “pillar.” His assertion—that a return to Marx was necessary at the time precisely because there was no stopping the destruction of the environment by capitalism—carried conviction.

I am quite certain that the JCP under Fuwa proceeded with reforms and kept moving toward pragmatism.

However, the party has preserved its democratic centrism and has not even begun trying to outgrow its closed-mindedness. As such, can anyone really say that the JCP’s future is bright?

Wintry winds were blowing when I received news of Fuwa’s death on Dec. 30. He was 95.

Could he and Mao be together now, perhaps apologizing to each other for their lengthy mutual failure to reconnect?

No. I think Fuwa must be challenging Marx to a battle of wits.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 3

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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