Bilateral relations between Japan and Italy formally began on 25 August 1866, but the first contacts between the two countries date back at least to the 16th century, when the first Japanese mission to Europe arrived in Rome in 1585 led by Itō Mancio.

In the 19th century, Italy and Japan saw great changes in their political and social structure, with the former gaining national unity in 1861 and the latter entering, from 1868, into a process of profound modernization along Western lines that took the name of the Meiji Restoration.

This was the first Japanese mission in a foreign land on the initiative of the missionary Alessandro Valignano and the Christian daimyō Ōtomo Sōrin, Ōmura Sumitada and Arima Harunobu.

The delegation consisted of four young dignitaries: Itō Mancio, Giuliano Nakaura, Martino Hara and Michele Chijiwa, joined by the Jesuit Diogo de Mesquita, who acted as their interpreter.

[8] Italy achieved national unity in 1861 during the period known as the Risorgimento, while Japan saw the end of the Bakufu system and the beginning in 1868 of a process of profound modernization along Western lines that came to be known as the Meiji Restoration.

This period also coincided with the beginning of formal relations between the two countries: in 1860 the first Italian merchant ship docked in Nagasaki, while the arrival of the military steamer Magenta in the port of Yokohama (27 May 1866) led to the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Commerce on 25 August of the same year, ratified in Edo by Captain Vittorio Arminjon.

A key figure in the relations between the two countries was Count Alessandro Fè d'Ostiani,[13] designated Minister Plenipotentiary for China and Japan in 1870, who accompanied the members of the mission during their visit.

In the meantime, in 1920, pilots Guido Masiero and Arturo Ferrarin, together with their engine drivers Roberto Maretto and Gino Capannini, successfully completed the 'Rome-Tokyo Raid',[22] which writers Gabriele D'Annunzio and Harukichi Shimoi had called for, and which represented the first air link between Europe and Japan.

[27] Italy and Japan, having both suffered defeat in World War II, resumed cooperation during the Cold War after a period of reconstruction and became integral parts of the so-called Western bloc (led by the United States), which for about half a century was politically and ideologically opposed to the Eastern bloc (led by the Soviet Union and comprising states adhering to the Warsaw Pact).

In 2002, the then President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi described relations between the two countries as being based on "an ancient and firm friendship, nourished by a continuous tradition of exchange and cooperation".

[citation needed] In 2009, the Japanese government donated more than €6 million to Italy for the project of assistance and reconstruction of the city of L'Aquila, hit by an earthquake in April of that year.

Similarly, Italy was at the forefront of providing humanitarian aid to Japan following the Tōhoku earthquake and tidal wave in 2011, as well as engaging in solidarity initiatives in the following years, mainly from the private sector.