A double layer perpendicular magnetic recording medium having a high medium S/N ratio at a recording density of 50 Gb/in2 or higher and a magnetic storage apparatus with a lower error rate and excellent reliability are obtained with a structure having soft magnetic underlayer 12, an intermediate layer 13 and a perpendicular magnetic recording layer 14 are sequentially formed on a substrate 11. The, intermediate layer 13 is made to be a non-magnetic amorphous alloy, in which Ni is a main component and Zr is contained, and the soft magnetic underlayer 12 is constituted of ferromagnetic nano-crystals precipitated by annealing.