To provide an aqueous ink for ink jet enabling the recording of an image having excellent character quality and excellent highlighter resistance immediately after the recording. An aqueous ink for ink jet includes a pigment and a urethane resin. The urethane resin has a unit derived from a polyisocyanate, a unit derived from a polyol having no acid group and a unit derived from a polyol having an acid group, the proportion of a unit derived from the polyol having an acid group present at the molecular terminal relative to the whole unit derived from the polyol having an acid group is 30% or less, and the aqueous ink has a dynamic surface tension of 55 mN/m or more at a lifetime of 10 msec.