Low temperature degradation behavior in yttria stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (Y-TZP) ceramics was microscopically observed from the phase contrast between monoclinic surface and tetragonal matrix. The degradation behavior was dependent on the surface treatment of sintered Y-TZP, even if the sintering history is same. In the mirror polished specimen, the monoclinic layer appeared in a uniform thickness from the surface. On the contrary, for the specimen with coarse scratch, the thickness of degraded surface was more than double especially from the coarse scratch. Since the scratch results in local deformation, the residual stress should be induced around the scratch. With the transformation from tetragonal to monoclinic, the volume expansion exerts a stress on a neighboring grains and promotes a successive phase transformation. Such a autocatalytic effect can be triggered from the part of coarse scratch.