Anthers of two rice (Oryza sativa L.) varieties, Lunhui 422 (P₁) and Jinzao 5 (P₂), their F₁, F₂ and first backcross generation-F₁ x Lunhui 422 (B₁), and F₁ x Jinzao 5 (B₂)-were cultured in L8 medium to study the inheritance of rice anther culturability using generation mean analysis. Significant effects of generation were observed for the four traits measured: anther response (%), frequency of callus induction (%), frequency of callus differentiation (%) and culture efficiency (%). Variation among the generations was similar for all traits: significant differences were found among six generations and the means of the P₂ and B₂ were significantly lower than those of the other generations. The frequency of callus differentiation showed a nonsignificant difference among the P₁, F₁, F₂ and B₁ generations which had slightly high values than the P₂ and B₂. Additive genetic variance (V_A) was higher than non-additive genetic variance (V_D) for anther response and frequency of callus induction. However, A_V was lower than V_D for frequence of callus differentiation and culture efficiency, V_A was significant for all traits except for the culture efficiency, and V_D was nonsignificant for all traits except for the frequency of callus differentiation. On the other hand, environmental variation (V_E) was significant for the 4 traits. Narrow-sense heritability estimates were 95.52%, 82.19% and 13.54% for anther response, frequency of callus induction and culture efficiency, respectively.