A direct positive color light-sensitive material comprising a support having provided thereon at least one photographic emulsion layer containing unfogged internal latent image type silver halide particles and a color image forming coupler, wherein said color image forming coupler itself is substantially nondiffusible and produces or releases a dye upon oxidation coupling with a color developing agent, and said light-sensitive material contains at least one development inhibitor-releasing type coupler selected from the group consisting of compounds represented by formulae (D-I) and (D-II)Coup--Z (D-I)Coup--TIME--Z (D-II)wherein Coup represents a coupler residual group; Z represents a diffusible development inhibitor or a precursor thereof; and TIME represents a timing group.