The main purpose of the present invention is to provide: a nonpolar or semipolar GaN substrate, in which a nitride semiconductor crystal having a low stacking fault density can be epitaxially grown on the main surface of the substrate, and a technique required for the production of the substrate.This invention provides: a method for manufacturing an M-plane GaN substrate comprising; forming a mask pattern having a line-shaped opening parallel to an a-axis of a C-plane GaN substrate on an N-polar plane of the C-plane GaN substrate, growing a plane-shape GaN crystal of which thickness direction is an m-axis direction from the opening of the mask pattern by an ammonotharmal method, and cutting out the M-plane GaN substrate from the plane-shape GaN crystal.