There is provided a disc holding mechanism capable of easily loading and unloading optical discs having different shapes on a disc tray, in which an optical disc is securely fixed and held on the disc tray and the load applied to the disc when it is loaded and unloaded on and from the disc tray can be eliminated. The disc holding mechanism is adapted to position and hold a disc on the surface of a disc tray 90 in place. The disc holding mechanism comprises a plurality of holding pins 57 and 58 that hold a central hole of the disc, in which at least one movable pin 59 of the holding pins controls a holding state of the disc. When loading the disc on the disc tray 90, the movable pin 59 presses the central hole of the disc in a centrifugal direction to secure the disc to be in its holding state. When unloading the disc, the movable pin 59 moves in a centripetal direction of the central hole to release the disc from its holding state.