The primary purpose of this study was to explore the expression of self-silencing across cultures using indirect forms of measurement. Although some previous research has measured self-silencing in different cultural populations, no studies have addressed selfsilencing for Japanese participants. Many of the items highly correlated with self-silencing have been ranked higher by Japanese participants than those from the United States. Thus, self-silencing may not be equivalent across all cultures. Drawing samples from Japan and the United States, self-silencing for each of the two groups and gender were measured using the own-category approach, an open card-sorting technique. Hierarchical cluster analyses of the card-sort data did not show much agreement with the original Silencing the Self-Scale and each cultural sample; however, cluster analyses between men and women within the United States proved good cluster recovery (ARI= .89) between genders. Results between cultures suggest the amae and humility may be driving Japanese attitudes towards self-silencing
