An image processing apparatus includes: a receiver that receives an image including at least a character image; a path calculator that calculates separation paths, which are segments for separating the character images in the image received by the receiver; a feature amount calculator that calculates feature amounts of the separation paths in a plurality of directions calculated by the path calculator; a selector that determines a separation direction of the image and a state of the character image and selects a separation path among the separation paths in the plurality of directions; a separator that separates the image into a plurality of partial images; and a recursive processing determining unit that determines whether or not to perform recursive processing, wherein the path calculator calculates the separation paths, which are the segments for separating the character image in the image separated by the separator.