An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus capable of obtaining a sharp image having less noise, comprising: a horizontal edge strength calculating unit 22 for calculating an edge strength along a horizontal direction of a concerned pixel; and a prefilter 24 for carrying out a filter processing based on the horizontal edge strength, and performing noise reduction and edge enhancement, a vertical edge strength calculating unit 23 for calculating an edge strength along a vertical direction of the concerned pixel; and a prefilter 25 for carrying out a filter processing based on the vertical edge strength, and performing noise reduction and edge enhancement, thereby enabling to sharpen image data in the vicinity of the concerned pixel respectively along horizontal and vertical directions, and obtain an image having less noises as well as sharp for edge directions.