A wireless communication apparatus performs access control which starts transmission after a backoff time passes since an available state of a channel is detected through carrier sense, the backoff time being set based on a random value selected within a contention window width. The wireless communication apparatus includes a remaining time calculating unit which calculates a remaining time until a request delay time time-outs after data is generated, and a setting unit which sets the contention window width according to the remaining time calculated by the remaining time calculating unit.