An optical control device includes a semiconductor laser that generates a light according to a drive current, a light amount detecting unit that detects a light amount of the light generated by the semiconductor laser; and a controller that controls the drive current to adjust the light amount to a target value by referring to a referring number of detection results of the light amount by the light amount detecting unit. The referring number at a time when the controller starts the drive current flowing is smaller than the referring number after the detection result of the light amount reaches a predetermined value.