The cap ‘n’ collar (CNC) family of transcription factors play important roles in resistance of oxidative and electrophilic stresses. Among the CNC family members, NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is critical for regulating the antioxidant and phase II enzymes through antioxidant response element (ARE)-mediated transactivation. The activity of Nrf2 is controlled by a variety of post-translational modifications, including phosphorylation, ubiquitination, acetylation and sumoylation. Here we demonstrate that the arginine methyltransferase-1 (PRMT1) methylates Nrf2 protein at a single residue of arginine 437, both in vitro and in vivo. Using the heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) as a model of phase II enzyme gene, we found that methylation of Nrf2 by PRMT1 led to a moderate increase of its DNA-binding activity and transactivation, which subsequently protected cells against the tBHP-induced glutathione depletion and cell death. Collectively, our results define a novel modification of Nrf2, which operates as a fine-tuning mechanism for the transcriptional activity of Nrf2 under the oxidative stress.