Optical recording method, optical recording apparatus, optical recording medium, optical reproducing method, and optical reproducing apparatus

The present invention provides an optical recording method and an optical recording apparatus for holographically recording information allowing for reductions in uneven consumption of the material through the thickness of a recording layer during recording to achieve high density recording and an increased recording capacity, an optical recording medium, and an optical reproducing method and an optical reproducing apparatus using the optical recording method. The optical recording method includes irradiating the optical recording medium with an information beam and a reference beam, dividing at least one of the information beam and the reference beam into two or more between a light source thereof and an optical recording medium, and adjusting the optical path lengths of the divided information beams and reference beams so that they focus on points different from each other through the thickness of the recording layer.