The present method is to drive a plasma display panel which displays a frame composed of a plurality of sub-fields having different weights of luminance. The method comprises using plural kinds of application voltage waveforms different in light emission luminance, as pulse voltages for sustain discharges in display of each sub-field, and adjusting the number of waves in each of the plural kinds of application voltage waveforms according to the weight of luminance set for each sub-field, thereby performing gradation display.