This surface-coated cutting tool is characterized in including a substrate and a coating film formed on the substrate, the coating film including one or more layers, the layer of the coating film that is adjacent to the substrate being a TiN layer, the TiN layer including, along with TiN, at least one element, said element having a concentration distribution in the thickness direction of the TiN layer, and the concentration distribution including a region in which the concentration of said element decreases from the substrate side to the coating film surface side.