The museum is located on Skeppsholmen in the building Tyghuset and since 1999 the museum is a part of the public Swedish National Museums of World Culture.

The museum was originally based mainly on Andersson’s groundbreaking discoveries in China, during the 1920s, of a hitherto unknown East Asian prehistory.

The museum today has wide-ranging collections from Japan, Korea, India and China. It exhibits of both archeology, classical arts and contemporary culture, and holds a large research library open to the public.

The last time the museum published a comprehensive catalog was 1963.

The museum also publishes an annual journal focused on research on ancient East Asia, the Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities.