An optical disk drive includes: a light source for producing a light beam; an objective lens for converging the light beam; an actuator for moving the objective lens with respect to an optical disk; a converging state detecting section for generating a focus error signal representing a converging state of the light beam on an information storage layer of the optical disk; and a focus control section for controlling the operation of the actuator such that the focus position of the light beam matches its target focus position as closely as possible in accordance with information about the target focus position and the focus error signal. The optical disk drive changes the target focus positions of the light beam when modes of operation are switched from a read mode into a write mode, or vice versa.