Contacts between the two countries can be traced back to the 18th century when Carl Peter Thunberg, a disciple of the botanist Carl Linnaeus, came to Japan for plant collecting and researching.

This made him the first Swedish national to visit Japan.

[1] The formal diplomatic relations of Japan and Sweden was established by the signing of Swedish-Japanese Treaty in 1868,[2] which was also the first treaty the Meiji Government made with a foreign state.

[3]: 2  During the first decade of the 20th century, the two countries started opening legations in Tokyo and Stockholm, then promoted to embassies in 1957.

[1] Japan is Sweden's second largest trading partner in Asia,[4] and some Swedish policies on welfare, population ageing and international affairs like peacekeeping and official development assistance have been taken concern, or even example of, by Japan.