A wireless communication method capable of preventing reduction of the throughput. According to this wireless communication method, in a frame (2), a relay station (1) decides that the amount of delay to be Δt2 because the modulation scheme of a relayed signal is 16 QAM, while another relay station (2) decides that the delay amount be Δt4 because the modulation scheme of a relayed signal is QPSK. The relay station (1) transmits, at Δt2 of the frame (2), the relayed signal, the modulation scheme of which is 16 QAM, to abase station. On the other hand, the relay station (2) detects, by Δt4, the fact that the relay station (1) transmitted the relayed signal at Δt2, and estimates, from the detected fact, that the modulation scheme used by the relay station (1) was 16 QAM. The relay station (2) then updates its modulation scheme from the initially established modulation scheme of QPSK to the same modulation scheme of 16 QAM as the relay station (1), and modulates the relayed signal by use of 16 QAM and then transmits it to the base station.