According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a pattern forming method including forming a lower layer organic film on a substrate, forming an upper layer resist film containing an inorganic element on the lower layer organic film, exposing a pattern on the upper layer resist film and performing development processing to form an opening in the upper layer resist film, supplying a coating forming agent to the upper layer resist film having the opening formed therein to embed and form a coating film in the opening of the upper layer resist film, thermally contracting the coating film to narrow the opening of the upper layer resist film, removing the coating film by dry etching processing and subsequently selectively removing the lower layer organic film with the upper layer resist film being used as a mask, thereby collectively processing the coating film and the lower layer organic film.