The formation of the Asian Packagiing Federation was formally proposed at the International Packaging Conference held in Tokyo on the 7th September 1996.

The Tokyo International Packaging Conference was held in conjunction with the first ever Tokyo Pack, which was also the first international packaging conference held in Asia.

The conference, was attended by 135 people from 16 countries and it was decided that a packaging organization for the world and another for Asia should be founded, these later became World Packaging Organisation and Asian Packaging Federation.

  The Inaugural General Meeting of the Asian Packaging Federation was held, appropriately, in Kyoto from July 6-8, 1997

By September 7th 1980 the APF Congress had become a major event in the Pacakging calendar. The 7th Asian Packaging Congress was co-organized by Asian Packaging Federation and Japan Packaging Institute.