To obtain an aqueous removable adhesive which does not drop a label naturally from paper, corrugated board-like rough surface, a nonpolar adherend such as a polyethylene or a polypropylene, does not increase adhesive strength even in an adherend made of a metal and takes sanitation nature into consideration.

The aqueous removable adhesive composition comprises an aqueous acrylic copolymer (1) obtained by subjecting (a) 89-98.9 wt.% of a (meth)acrylic acid alkyl ester containing a 2-14C alkyl group, (b) 0.5-5 wt.% of a carboxy group-containing ethylenic unsaturated monomer, (c) 0.5-5 wt.% of an alcoholic hydroxy group-containing copolymerizable acrylic monomer and (d) 0.1-1 wt.% of a phthalic acid diallyl ester to emulsion polymerization, a metal crosslinking agent (2) and an isocyanate group-containing soap-free type water-dispersible crosslinking agent (3).