Method of manufacturing plastic optical fiber

In a method of manufacturing a plastic optical fiber by heating and drawing either one end portion of a transparent plastic rod, a plastic optical fiber having a cross sectional form approximately similar to the cross sectional form of the transparent plastic rod, the transparent plastic rod is heated by exposing near infrared ray which is radiated from a near infrared ray source. This can prevent the plastic optical fiber from causing to blow many bubbles on the surface and heat degradation to allow the plastic optical fiber to be obtained with a high quality.