To provide high carbon steel of ≥0.60% C content which has low hardness after spheroidizing annealing and can be cold worked at ≥70% critical upset rate breaking without causing cracking and can produce ≥62 HRC hardness by induction hardening and also to provide its manufacturing method.

The steel for induction hardening has a composition which consists of, by mass, 0.60 to 0.80% C, 0.03 to 0.20% Si, 0.15 to 0.80% Mn, ≤0.30% P, ≤0.015% S, 0.020 to 0.050% Al, ≤0.0100% N, ≤0.0015% O and the balance Fe with inevitable impurities and in which Al and N satisfy inequality, Al>2.5N. The steel is characterized in that: the area ratio of pro-eutectoid ferrite in a microstructure before spheroidizing annealing is ≤2%; hardness after the spheroidizing annealing is ≤85 HRB; the proportion of spheroidized carbides in the microstructure after the spheroidizing annealing is ≥80%; and ≥62 HRC hardness can be secured by subsequent induction hardening.