A magnetic field of a polarity corresponding to information to be recorded is applied while a recording spot having a high energy is irradiated to a magneto-opti­cal recording medium (1) to record domains representing the information along a track. The recorded domains (106) are read out by a reproducing spot having a lower energy than the recording spot and a high resolution power along the track. A recording head (11) has an optical system (2 - 9) for irradiating the recording spot having the high energy to the magneto-optical recording medium (1) and a magnetic head (12) for applying a magnetic field having a polarity thereof switched in accordance with the informa­tion to be recorded, to an irradiation area of the recor­ding spot, a reproducing head (300) has an optical system for irradiating the reproducing spot having the low energy by a laser beam having a wavelength of not larger than 600 nm and a magneto-optical signal detector for detecting a displacement of a polarization plane of a reflected light of the reproducing spot to read out the recording domains. The magneto-optical recording medium (1) is made of a recording film having a multi-layer structure (101 - 103) of alternate lamination of metal layers and dielec­tric layers.