An image processing apparatus includes: a first cost calculating section configured to calculate similarity degrees between a first pixel in a first image and plural second pixels located in a horizontal-direction first range in a second image, and extract a second pixel with a highest similarity degree; a second cost calculating section configured to calculate a similarity degree between plural third pixels in a vertical-direction second range including the extracted second pixel and the first pixel and extract a third pixel with a highest similarity degree; an amount-of-difference buffer recording difference between a vertical-position of the extracted third pixel and the first pixel as an amount of difference; and a second position setting section configured to determine positions of the second pixels for which a similarity degree to the first pixel for which a disparity is calculated next is calculated.