The Japanese organizers began planning the route for the torch relay a year before the Games. The central idea was to show that the Olympics were not just a European or Western affair but a shared event across cultures. The flame, therefore, would travel through multiple Asian capitals before reaching Tokyo.
From Olympia, the torch was flown to Athens and carried through parts of Greece. It then traveled across the Mediterranean and the Middle East, reaching Istanbul, Beirut, and then Tehran. From there, the flame was scheduled to pass through Lahore, Delhi, Rangoon (Yangon in Myanmar), Bangkok, Manila, Hong Kong, Taipei, Okinawa, and finally Tokyo.
This route, which symbolically connected East and West, highlighted Japan’s vision of presenting the 1964 Games as the “Olympics of Peace and Progress.” Each stop along the way became a stage for local celebrations, and Tehran’s welcome was among the most elaborate.
