An image processing apparatus includes a characteristic region detecting section that detects a plurality of characteristic regions in an image, a condition storing section that stores thereon assignment conditions differing in accordance with characters of characteristic regions, so that different compression strengths are assigned in accordance with the characters of the characteristic regions, a compressing section that respectively compresses a plurality of characteristic region images which are images of the plurality of characteristic regions, and a compression control section that controls compression strengths at which the compressing section respectively compresses the plurality of characteristic region images in accordance with characters of the plurality of characteristic regions, with reference to the conditions stored on the condition storing section. Also provided is an image processing apparatus that includes an encoding manner storing section that stores encoding manners in association with quantities of characteristics of objects, a characteristic region detecting section that detects a plurality of characteristic regions from an image, and a compressing section that compresses the images of the plurality of characteristic regions by encoding manners stored in the encoding manner storing section in association with the quantities of characteristics of objects included in the plurality of characteristic regions respectively.