A magnetic recording medium comprising: on a non-magnetic substrate, at least a soft magnetic undercoat film comprising a soft magnetic material; an orientation control film for controlling an orientation of a film directly above; a perpendicular magnetic film in which an axis of easy magnetization is oriented mainly perpendicularly with respect to the substrate; and a protection film, wherein the perpendicular magnetic film has a structure in which a large number of magnetic grains are separated by a grain boundary layer, and an average separating distance between the magnetic grains along a straight line which connects centers of gravity of mutually neighboring magnetic grains is 1 nm or greater.