AbstractFor optical communication technology, which has been pushing for higher speed and larger capacity in the transmission trunk lines, the urgent tasks are not only improvements in performance but also the expansion of applicable areas by introducing new functions and moving into new phases.For optical fibers to be applicable in access net, subscriber loop, intrastation transmission systems, and interprocessor connections, the realization of optical links that are easy to use, easy to fabricate; and inexpensive, is strongly demanded. Also, the appearance of optical nodes everywhere in the broad bandwidth network that will be the backbone of the multimedia society would not be too far off. Research on integrated optical devices and circuits that have new structures for waveguide‐type devices, array components, or two‐dimensional devices, is continuing to progress to meet these demands.To mount these devices and circuits compactly and inexpensively into packages and modules, innovative packaging techniques have to be developed correspondingly. From this viewpoint, this paper reviews optical packaging technology, which holds the key to the realization of integrated photon