This paper studies systematically, for the first time, the circumgalactic environment of bright IRAS galaxies as defined by Soifer et al. (1989). While the role of gravitational interaction for luminous and ultraluminous IRAS galaxies has been well established by various studies, the situation is by far more obscure in the IR luminosity range of the bright IRAS sample, 10^{10}Lsol < Lfir < 10^{11} Lsol. To easily identify nearby companion galaxies, the bright IRAS sample was restricted to 87 objects with redshift range 0.008 < z < 0.018 and galactic latitude > 30^{o}. A control sample, selected from the Center for Astrophysics redshift survey catalogue, includes 90 objects matching the Bright IRAS sample for distribution of isophotal diameter, redshift, and morphological type. From a search of nearby companion galaxies within 250 Kpc on the second-generation Digitized Sky Survey (DSS-II), we found that the circumgalactic environment of the Bright IRAS galaxies contains more large companions than the galaxies in the optically selected control sample, and is similar to that of Seyfert 2 galaxies. We found a weak correlation over a wide range of far IR luminosity (10^9 Lsol < Lfir < 10^{12.5}Lsol) between projected separation and Lfir, which confirms a very close relationship between star formation rate of a galaxy and the strength of gravitational perturbations. We also find that the far IR colors depend on whether a source is isolated or interacting. Finally, we discuss the intrinsic difference and evolution expectations for the bright IRAS galaxies and the control sample, as well as the relationship between starbursting and active galaxies.
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