Ratings of pattern goodness and pattern preference were made by 96 Japanese subjects for each of 50 stimulus patterns of known pattern uncertainty, Equal numbers of male and female subjects were used in each of four age groups (9-10, 13-14, 17-18, 20-21). Ratings of pattern goodness and pattern preference were highly correlated with each other and with pattern uncertainty for all age groups. The results were similar to those previously obtained with subjects in the United States, and differed from those obtained with Brazilian subjects. In Japan, as in the United States, essentially adult encoding strategies are developed as early as 9-10 years of age. The results support the hypotheses of similar encoding of patterns across cultures, and of a common cross-cultural basis for esthetic judgments.