A disclosed perpendicular magnetic recording medium includes a substrate; a soft magnetic underlayer disposed on the substrate and having no remanent magnetization; and a ferromagnetic recording layer disposed on the soft magnetic underlayer. The soft magnetic underlayer includes at least three soft magnetic layers laid one above the other with a non-magnetic intermediate layer interposed between every two adjacent soft magnetic layers. Among the (at least) three soft magnetic layers, at least one pair of soft magnetic layers form ferromagnetic coupling. Among the (at least) three soft magnetic layers, at least one pair of soft magnetic layers form antiferromagnetic coupling.