A cold cathode tube lighting device prevents emission-position-dependent unevenness from occurring in the brightness of light emitted from the cold cathode tube lighting device and includes a plurality of discharge tubes connected in parallel; ballast capacitors each integrally attached to a respective one of the plurality of discharge tubes; power supplies arranged to supply power to the plurality of discharge tubes; and a voltage detection unit connected to the plurality of discharge tubes to detect voltages between pairs of internal electrodes of the plurality of discharge tubes. The power supply to the plurality of discharge tubes is controlled according to the voltages detected by the voltage detection unit.