In a document processing apparatus, a first character information extracting unit extracts, for a first area that is an area determined to be a character extractable area in divided areas of a document information, first character information from the area; a second character information extracting unit extracts, for a second area that is an area not determined to be the character extractable area in the divided areas, a character code by performing a character recognition processing on a document image generated from the document information as second character information; and a storing unit stores therein the first character information, the second character information, and at least one of the document information and the document image in association with each other.