Method for manufacturing light emitting element, and light emitting element

A method for manufacturing light emitting elements including: providing a semiconductor wafer including a substrate, an n-side nitride semiconductor layer, and a p-side nitride semiconductor layer, sequentially from bottom to top; forming work-altered regions in the substrate by irradiating a laser beam on the substrate; and obtaining a plurality of light emitting elements by dividing the semiconductor wafer in which the work-altered regions have been formed in the substrate. Between the step of providing a semiconductor wafer and the step of forming the work-altered regions, forming a protective layer on an upper face of the p-side nitride semiconductor layer in the regions which include the borders of the areas which become the plurality of light emitting elements, and reducing the resistance of the p-side nitride semiconductor in the areas where no protective layer has been formed by annealing the semiconductor wafer.