To provide an information recording medium which is capable of reducing damage to a recording layer while improving environmental resistance of the recording layer and which enables information to be recorded or reproduced at a high density and a high sensitivity, an optical information recording and reproducing apparatus, an optical information recording and reproducing method, and a manufacturing method of an information recording medium. An information recording medium (24) includes: a substrate (1); first to mth (where m is an integer equal to or greater than 1) recording layers (2) respectively provided on an incident side of recording light or reproducing light with respect to the substrate (1) in order of distance closer to the incident side; and first to mth (where m is an integer equal to or greater than 1) negative refractive index layers (3) respectively provided on the incident side of the recording light or the reproducing light with respect to the mth recording layer (2) in order of distance closer to the incident side, wherein an ith (1≦i≦m) recording layer (2) and an ith negative refractive index layer (3) are alternately provided on the substrate (1), and the first to mth negative refractive index layers (3) effectively have a negative refractive index at a wavelength of the recording light or the reproducing light.