OPTICAL DISC, OPTICAL DISC RECORDING/PLAYBACK APPARATUS, AND INFORMATION RECORDING/PLAYBACK METHOD

For a disc on which recording is to be performed at a plurality of recording densities, a technique for easily reading out disc management information without an error is disclosed. An optical disc (1) includes a plurality of data recording areas (103,104) for recording information at data recording densities different from each other. Information regarding the data recording densities of the data recording areas(103,104) is recorded in a management information recording area (BCA area (101) or PIC area (102)) in a specific format that does not depend on the data recording densities of the data recording areas (103,104). Each data recording area is divided to be arranged on the same surface of the disc, or is divided and arranged on a plurality of recording layers.