A magneto-optical recording medium wherein an initializing layer is covered with a resin layer for dissipating heat from the initializing layer thereby to prevent signal degradation at high recording power and thus excellent in record/reproduce repetition times, and the initializing layer is compositionally modulated thereby to broaden allowable ranges for the recording/reproducing light intensity and for the external magnetic field, besides the composition of a first or a second magnetic layer is controlled thereby to enhance recording sensitivity, and the exchange-coupling force between the first and second magnetic layers or the magnetic field strengthe to reverse the magnetization of the first magnetic layer is controlled thereby to enhance the recording/reproducing characteristics.