A servo signal recording apparatus of the present invention is provided with a tape motion measurement unit 5 that measures the lateral motion of a magnetic tape 3, and outputs tape motion information, a signal processing unit 20 that generates a servo signal that includes the tape motion information output from the tape motion measurement unit 5, and a servo signal recording head 4 that records the servo signal generated by the signal processing unit 20 to the magnetic tape 3. The tape motion measurement unit 5 measures the tape motion prior to the timing at which a servo signal is recorded to the magnetic tape 3 by the servo signal recording head 4, and records a servo signal that includes the tape motion information. This configuration enables a servo signal that can be used to perform tracking servo at high speed and with high accuracy to be written to a magnetic tape.