Ageing society, labour shortages in the care sector and increasing social security costs havebecome serious social problems in many countries. Sweden and Japan are, of course, noexception in this respect. In order to alleviate this situation, both countries have implementedvarious policies in different social areas, as well as promoting digitalisation and introducingcare robots in the healthcare sector. While older people are generally considered to be reluctantto adapt to new technologies, in both Japan and Sweden, the digital integration of older peopleis higher than in other countries. In the near future, care robots or robotic care would becomemore common in the care sector in both countries. This study examines how people in bothcountries perceive robots and autonomous artefacts and how they construct relationships withthese artefacts, based on the results of two surveys, one conducted in Japan 2020, and anotherin Sweden 2019, and elucidates the relationship between humans and robots from an ethicalperspective. The research findings show that people’s orientation toward the search for theexistential meaning and their complex emotions related to ephemerality and transience canaffect the relationship between humans and robots. Furthermore, this study is a new attempt toincorporate a 'care' perspective into technology ethics.