At startup when reproduction from a recording medium such as an optical disc is started, search time for searching for management information to manage recording states of user data is shortened to reduce startup waiting time. The present invention provides a recording/reproducing method for performing recording/reproducing onto/from a recording medium having a first recording area to record user data, a second recording area to record management information to manage a recording state of the user data, and a third recording area to record non-user data other than the management information, wherein recording position information of the newest management information within the second recording area is recorded at a predetermined position in the third recording area.