Provided is a method for producing a zirconia-coated titanium oxide fine particle dispersion which includes (1) a step of preparing a dispersion (1) of titanium oxide fine particles, (2) a step of adding, to the dispersion (1), 1 to 50 parts by mass of an aqueous peroxozirconic acid solution in terms of the mass of ZrO.sub.2 per 100 parts by mass of the titanium oxide fine particles, and then aging reaction fine particles (2a) obtained as a result of a reaction between the titanium oxide fine particles and the peroxozirconic acid to thereby obtain a dispersion (2) of a zirconia-coated titanium oxide fine particle precursor (2b), and (3) a step of adjusting the dispersion (2) to have a solid concentration of 0.01 to 10 mass % and then hydrothermally treating the resulting dispersion (2).

The present invention addresses the problem of providing particles having low photocatalytic activity and a high refractive index by forming an amorphous layer that contains Si and Ti on the surface of crystalline titanium oxide. The problem is solved by core-shell particles wherein the core particles are crystalline titanium oxide and the shell is an amorphous layer that contains Si and Ti.