A rewritable optical recording medium includes a substrate and a phase-change type recording layer. A portion in a crystalline state corresponds to an unrecorded or erased state, and a portion in an amorphous state correspond to a recorded state, to record EFM modulated information by forming amorphous marks by irradiating the recording layer with a recording laser beam, and the recording is carried out by irradiating a recording laser beam having a wavelength of about 780 nm through an optical system having a numerical aperture NA of 0.5 or 0.55, at 24-times velocity or 32-times velocity of the reference velocity.