Laminaria gametophyte was greatly influenced by light in its growth and development. Using light-emitting diodes (LED) as blue and red light sources, we analyzed the light effect on gametophytes development of Laminaria japonica Aresch. The gametophytes were obtained from zoospores collected in April, May,July, 2003 and September, 2004. We found that the growth of gametophytes was stimulated by increasing intensity of blue light (BL) and red light (RL) illumination, of which BL was obviously stronger than that of RL. The fertilization of gametophytes depended largely on BL, and only sufficient BL illumination could take the reproductive effect. In addition, we noticed that there was a significant difference in light responses for gametophytes developed from zoospore collected in different times. For zoospores released in April, under BL1 (73.90 μmol sperms respectively, and further developed towards sporophytes. However, for gametophytes developed in May,July or September, they became multi-cellular and never formed oogonia or antheridia. It is believed that the Laminaria sporangium maturation stage could affect the gametophytes reaction to BL under laboratory culture conditions. Therefore, cryptochrome- or phototropin-like BL photoreceptors is probably involved in BL-induced development of Laminaria gametophytes.