A headlight control device which recognizes an oncoming vehicle using a camera without dazzling the driver of the oncoming vehicle includes a sequence control section that generates a headlight control signal from an image captured by the camera mounted on the vehicle, and a control value calculation section that calculates a control value for a light distribution pattern in the headlight control signal. An image recognition program includes a license plate recognition section that detects a license plate of the preceding vehicle from the image, and a cut-off line recognition section that detects a cut-off line of the headlight from the image. The control value calculation section calculates the control value for the light distribution pattern such that the cut-off line detected by the cut-off line recognition section is positioned higher by a predetermined height than an upper end of the license plate detected by the license plate recognition section.