An apparatus 100 according to the present invention is designed to read and/or write data from/on an information recording medium 1 using near-field light. The apparatus 100 includes: a light source 3 for emitting laser light; a condensing section 7 for producing the near-field light based on the laser light; a detecting section 22, 23 for detecting the relative positions of the condensing section 7 and the information recording medium 1; and a control section 14 for controlling the position of the condensing section 7. In starting a gap servo operation, the control section 14 controls the position of the condensing section 7 so that the gap servo operation is started at a different location on the information recording medium 1 from any other location where the gap servo operation has ever been started.