A halftone phase shift photomask designed so that it is possible to shorten the photoengraving process, use a production line for a conventional photomask, prevent lowering of the contract between the transparent and semitransparent regions at a long wavelength in the visible region, which is used for inspection and measurement, and also prevent charge-up during electron beam exposure, and that ordinary physical cleaning process can be used for the halftone phase shift photomask. The halftone phase shift photomask has on a transparent substrate (1) a region which is semitransparent to exposure light and a region which is transparent to the exposure light so that the phase difference between light passing through the transparent region and light passing through the semitransparent region is substantially .pi. radians. A semitransparent film that constitutes the semitransparent region is arranged in the form of a multilayer film including layers (3, 4) of chromium or a chromium compound. For example, the layer (3) is formed of chromium oxide, chromium oxide nitride, chromium oxide carbide, or chromium oxide nitride carbide, and the layer (4) is formed of chromium or chromium nitride. The layer (3) mainly serves as a phase shift layer, while the layer (4) mainly serves as a transmittance control layer that suppresses the rise of transmittance at the long wavelength side. The semitransparent film is formed by physical vapor deposition.