A sputtering apparatus SM has: a vacuum chamber in which a substrate and a target are disposed to lie opposite to each other; a plasma generating means generating a plasma inside the vacuum chamber; and a magnet unit disposed above the target. The magnet unit has a plurality of magnets with different polarities on a substrate side. A leakage magnetic field in which a line passing through a position where a vertical component of the magnetic field becomes zero is closed in an endless manner, is caused to locally act on such a space below the target as is positioned between the center of the target and a periphery thereof. The magnet unit is divided, on an imaginary line extending from the center of the target toward a periphery thereof, into a plurality of segments each having a plurality of magnets.