AIM: To verify the reliability and validity of Multidimensional Measure of Leader-Member Exchange Japanese version (LMX-MDM-J) for staff nurses. BACKGROUND: Staff nurses who have a high-quality relationship with nurse managers tend to have low turnover intention. However, the validity and reliability of LMX-MDM Japanese version have not been confirmed. METHODS: Staff nurses (n = 870) working in wards of four Japanese hospitals were surveyed using self-administered questionnaires. Reliability was tested by internal consistency. Validity was tested by the confirmatory factor analysis for construct validity and relationships with external criteria for criterion-related validity. RESULTS: There were 450 valid responses. Cronbach's α coefficients of the overall scale and each dimension were 0.97 and 0.86-0.95, respectively. The goodness-of-fit indices of the confirmatory factor analysis showed CFI = 0.981 and RMSEA = 0.076. Correlation coefficients with external criteria were 0.57 for job satisfaction, 0.80 for relationship satisfaction with the nurse manager and -0.36 for turnover intention (all p < .001). CONCLUSION: The reliability and validity of LMX-MDM-J were determined to be adequate for staff nurses. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: LMX-MDM-J can accurately measure the quality of the dyadic relationship between nurse managers and staff nurses. This measurement indicates whether nurse managers are providing leadership.