Perpendicular magnetic recording medium

A perpendicular magnetic recording medium includes a nonmagnetic substrate, and a soft magnetic layer, a first orientation control layer, a second orientation control layer, a nonmagnetic intermediate layer, a magnetic recording layer, and a protective layer layered sequentially on the nonmagnetic substrate. The first orientation control layer includes a thin film having a face-centered cubic (fcc) structure. The magnetic recording layer includes a thin film layer having ferromagnetic crystal grains and nonmagnetic grain boundaries surrounding the ferromagnetic crystal grains, the ferromagnetic crystal grains including a CoPt alloy having ferromagnetic properties, and the nonmagnetic grain boundaries including an oxide or a nitride. The nonmagnetic intermediate layer includes a thin film containing Ru. The second orientation control layer includes an alloy thin film having an element selected from among Ni and Fe and having the fcc structure, the second orientation control layer having a saturation magnetic flux density Bs of 1 T or lower.