To provide an economically advantageous method for manufacturing -caprolactone which enables efficient separation of unreacted cyclohexanone from a crude reaction liquid and recovery of -caprolactone of high qualities in a high yield.

This method for manufacturing -caprolactone by oxidizing cyclohexanone comprises feeding the crude reaction liquid to a first distillation column, distilling out a first distillate comprising low-boiling components containing unreacted cyclohexanone through a column top of the first distillation column, recovering a first middle distillate containing cyclohexanone of a higher concentration than the first distillate from a middle plate, recovering a first bottom liquid comprising high-boiling components containing -caprolactone from the column bottom, and subsequently introducing the first middle distillate into a second distillation column, obtaining a second bottom liquid containing unreacted cyclohexanone from the column bottom of the second distillation column, feeding back the second bottom liquid to the starting cyclohexanone, introducing the first bottom liquid to a third distillation column, and obtaining a third distillate containing -caprolactone from the third distillation column.