A method of fabricating a nonpolar gallium nitride-based semiconductor layer is provided. The method is a method of fabricating a nonpolar gallium nitride layer using metal organic chemical vapor deposition, and includes disposing a gallium nitride substrate with an m-plane growth surface within a chamber, raising a substrate temperature to a GaN growth temperature by heating the substrate, and growing a gallium nitride layer on the gallium nitride substrate by supplying a Ga source gas, an N source gas, and an ambient gas into the chamber at the growth temperature. The supplied ambient gas contains N2 and does not contain H2.