Bipolaris oryzae is the causal agent of brown leaf spot disease in rice, and its asexual spore (conidium) formation is known to be induced by near-ultraviolet (NUV) irradiation. In order to reveal the photomorphogenic response and to identify new genes upregulated by NUV irradiation, suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) was carried out in B. oryzae. To confirm the differential gene expression in NUV-irradiated mycelia, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis was performed among 301 genes arbitrarily chosen from 1170 cDNA clones. The expression of 46 genes (named NUV01 to NUV46) was found to be significantly enhanced (>4-fold) by NUV irradiation. Sequence analysis revealed that 23 out of the 46 sequences (50%) showed significant matches to known fungal genes. The 46 genes were categorized as either BLR1-dependent or BLR1-independent expression groups using the BLR1-deficient mutant, which presumably lacks the blue/UVA-absorbing photoreceptor. This finding demonstrates that NUV irradiation can induce gene regulation, and that this response may be mediated by both a blue/UVA-absorbing photoreceptor and an as-yet-unidentified photoreceptor in B. oryzae.