A method for driving a plasma display panel including discharge cells at the intersections of data electrodes D1 to Dm and pairs of scan electrodes SC1 to SCn and sustain electrodes SU1 to SUn. One field period is composed of a plurality of subfields each including a writing period and a sustain period. During the writing period, a writing discharge is generated in a selected one of the discharge cells. During the sustain period, a sustain discharge is generated in the selected discharge cell. A voltage to be applied to sustain electrodes SU1 to SUn in the writing period of the subfield having the lowest display luminance of all the subfields is set higher than a voltage to be applied to sustain electrodes SU1 to SUn in the writing period of the subfields other than the subfield having the lowest display luminance.