Provided is an etching technique providing higher uniformity of etching amount and a higher yield of etching processing. An etching method for etching a film layer as a processing object containing nitride of transition metal, the film layer being disposed on a surface of a wafer, includes a step of supplying reactive particles containing fluorine and hydrogen but containing no oxygen to a surface of the film layer to form a reaction layer on the surface of the film layer, and a step of eliminating the reaction layer by heating the film layer.