Seed coat cracking of soybeans leads to the deterioration of seed quality for products derived from whole beans and a reduction of the market value. In also affects the storage ability of seed and decreases germination. Soybean cultivars differ in the incidence of seed coat cracking. The incidence increased by pod removal treatment and differences among cultivars could be readily detected. Using the pod removal treatment, heritability estimates for the incidence of seed coat cracking in early generations were relatively high. As a result of continuous selection for high and low incidence, heritability estimates for the trait increased and values greater than 0.9 were obtained in the F6 generation. Due to genotypic correlation, incidence of seed coat cracking was negatively correlated with maturity, plant height and 100 seed weight. Treatment with a growth regulator, ethychlozate, had a similar effect to that of pod removal treatment. Thus an efficient selection method to reduce the incidence of seed coat cracking was developed using ethychlozate.