The universality of secure base construct, which suggests that one's use of an 
attachment figure as a secure base from which to explore the environment is an 
evolutionary outcome, is one of the core ideas of attachment theory. However, 
this universality idea has been critiqued because exploration is not as valued 
in Japanese culture as it is in Western cultures. Waters and Waters (2006) 
hypothesized that one's experiences of secure base behaviors are stored as a 
script in memory, and developed a narrative assessment called the Attachment 
Script Assessment (ASA) to evaluate one's secure base script. This study 
examined the validity of the ASA and the utility of secure base concept in 
Japanese culture. A sample of Japanese young adults (N = 89; M = 23.46; SD = 
3.20; 57% = females) completed both the ASA and self-report questionnaires. The 
results revealed that the ASA score was associated with two dimensions of 
self-report questionnaires assessing parent-youth attachment relationships 
(trust and communication). The ASA score was not related to Japanese cultural 
values (amae acceptance, interdependent self-construal, and low independent 
self-construal). However, a low ASA score was related to a psychological 
dysfunction in the Japanese cultural context; hikikomori symptoms, which are 
defined as a desire to remain in his or her own room and his or her 
understanding of this behavior in other people. We concluded that since 
hikikomori can be interpreted as an extreme inhibition of exploration, the 
association between low secure base script and hikikomori symptoms suggests the 
utility of secure base construct in Japan. (PsycINFO Database Record