A reading apparatus according to an embodiment includes a captured-image reading section, an article detecting section, an object recognizing section, and a code reading section. The captured-image reading section reads, from an imaging apparatus that captures a captured image associated with distance information indicating distances to articles, the captured image associated with the distance information. The article detecting section detects images of articles in a preset predetermined imaging region in the captured image. The object recognizing section performs, based on the distance information, object recognition processing of an object, the object being an article closest from the imaging apparatus among the articles. The code reading section performs, based on the distance information, if a distance between the object and the imaging apparatus is equal to or smaller than a predetermined distance, code reading processing for detecting a code symbol from the predetermined imaging region and reading code information from the code symbol.