A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes a plurality of coil elements for receiving magnetic resonance signals of a subject in a plurality of selectable combinations. The magnetic resonance imaging apparatus also includes a sensitive region storage device for storing respective sensitive regions for the combinations of the coil elements, a setting device for setting scan regions, a calculation device for calculating a scan volume rate indicating each of proportions of overlap regions between the scan regions and the sensitive regions to the scan regions, and a sensitivity volume rate indicating each of proportions of the overlap regions to the sensitive regions, and a selection device for selecting each combination of the coil elements used to receive the magnetic resonance signals of the subject, out of the combinations of the coil elements, based on the scan volume rate and the sensitivity volume rate.