© 2016 The Japan Society of Applied Physics. We examined an environmentally friendly photoresist removal method using radicals produced by decomposing mixtures of hydrogen and oxygen on a hot tungsten catalyst. The photoresist removal rate increased with the oxygen additive amount (the flow rate ratio of oxygen to hydrogen) up to an optimal amount and then decreased gradually. When the catalyst temperature was 1600°C, the optimal oxygen additive amount was 1.0% and the removal rate was 1.7 times higher than that in the pure hydrogen system. At 2000°C, the optimal amount increased to 2.5% but the increase ratio decreased by 1.3 times. At high catalyst temperatures, the absolute removal rate as well as the optimal oxygen additive amount is high, but the increase ratio is low. At the optimal oxygen additive amount, H, O, and OH radicals may exert their effects together to decompose photosensitive polymers.