This study was performed at Rice and Winter Cereal Crops Department of NICS during 2007 and 2008 to investigate the characteristics of rice leaf emergence and to obtain basic data which can be used for rice growth simulation model by which we can forecast rice growth stage and heading date accurately under different cultivars, transplanting date, and climatic conditions. To confirm leaf emergence rate according to rice maturing ecotype, we surveyed the leaf emergence rate and heading date of Unkwangbyeo, Hwayoungbyeo and Nampyeongbyeo which are early maturing, medium maturing and medium-late maturing cultivars, respectively, according to seedling raising duration and transplanting time. When seedling duration was 15 days, the growth duration between transplanting time and completion of flag leaf emergence on main culm were 51.5~78.3 days in Unkwangbyeo, 55.3~87.9 days in Hwayoungbyeo and 58.4~98.4 days in Nampyeongbyeo, respectively. When seedling duration was 30 days, they were 50.1~75.5 days in Unkwangbyeo, 52.4~84.7 days in Hwayoungbyeo and 56.4~93.8 days in Nampyeongbyeo, respectively. As transplanting time delayed, the emerged leaf number after transplanting decreased in all rice cultivars. The cumulative temperature between transplanting time to completion of flag leaf elongation on main culm were 1,281~circC~1,650~circC in Unkwangbyeo, 1,344~circC~1,891~circC in Hwayoungbyeo and 1,454~circC~2,173~circC in Nampyeongbyeo, respectively. Leaf emergence rate on main culm were precisely represented by equation, y = y0 + a / [1 + exp( - (x - x0 ) / b)]c, when we used daily mean temperature as variable.