An information storage medium has a system lead-in area and a data lead-in area, and an area identifying circuit identifies whether a light beam irradiation area of an optical pickup head is at the system lead-in area or at the data lead-in area based on a reproduction signal provided from the optical pickup head. The area identifying circuit identifies the respective areas by using the number of zero crossings obtained from a signal, for example, into which the reproduction signal is binarized. An information reproducing circuit reproduces information from the reproduction signal based on the identified result by the area identifying circuit.