An optical information reproducing method of the present invention is used for an optical recording medium (1). The optical recording medium (1) includes a recording layer (15) containing information and a mask layer (13) that is located close to the recording layer (15) and includes a nonlinear optical material whose optical properties are changed in accordance with incident light intensity. The method includes irradiating the optical recording medium (1) with convergent light that is polarized in a first direction and dividing reflected light from the optical recording medium (1) into a first polarized component that is polarized in the first direction and a second polarized component that is polarized in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The second polarized component is used to detect a reproduction signal.