A display medium drive device includes: a translucent display medium, a back substrate opposing the display substrate, a dispersant sealed between the display substrate and the back substrate, and plural types of particle groups with different colors and charge polarities that are dispersed in the dispersant so as to move in the inter-substrate space in response to an electric field; and a voltage application unit which, in a case of displaying a gradation of a color of a first particle group, applies a first voltage and which is a voltage equal to or greater than a threshold voltage needed to cause at least some of the first particle group to detach from the display substrate or the back substrate and thereafter applies a second voltage that has the same polarity as the first voltage and is lower than the threshold voltage.