Plasma processing apparatus and plasma processing method

A plasma processing method for applying an etching processing to each of wafers using at least two steps of said etching processing, comprising:

• locating one wafer within a pressure-reduced processing chamber inside a vacuum vessel, said one wafer having on a silicon-composed substrate, a film structure which includes a mask and at least one processing-target film located under said mask;
• generating plasma within said processing chamber;
• and
• after that, applying an etching processing to said film structure using said at least two steps for said etching processing, wherein
• another wafer, having a same film structure as said one wafer and to be processed succeeding to said etching processing of said one wafer, is processed in such a manner that a processing condition at a step corresponding to said first step of said at least two steps as to said one wafer of said etching processing in said processing of said another wafer, is adjusted based on a result obtained by detecting a time between starting and termination of the second step of said etching processing as to said one wafer.