An ink jet recording apparatus has an ink recording region and an electrostatic attraction device. The ink recording region is located at a position spaced from an ink jet recording head. The electrostatic attraction is arranged at an opposite side to a surface of a recording medium to be recorded, in the ink recording region. The has a plurality of first regions and second regions which are alternately distributed. The first regions electrostatically attract the recording medium in the ink recording region relatively strongly and the second regions attract the recording medium relatively weakly. The electrostatic attraction serves to minimize the effects of cockling and that assures stable, high quality recording.