A magnetic resonance imaging technique provides adequate MT effects by applying a shortened MT pulse and scan time. An MT pulse whose frequency is off-resonance to a region to be imaged of an object is first applied to he object, a spoiler pulse is applied to the object, and an echo signal is acquired from the region to be imaged. The duration of the MT pulse is set to a relatively shorter time than conventional. Preferably, the duration is less than 10 ms. The area of the MT pulse waveform is set to a specified value equivalent to the conventional. The MT pulse is preferably applicable to a two-dimensional scan using the multislice technique but can also be used in a three-dimensional scan.