An earth leakage circuit breaker includes an earth leakage detector, a rectifier, a switching part, and a controller. The switching part is installed on an electric circuit between an alternating current (AC) power supply and the rectifier, and switches between supply and interruption of the power from the AC power supply. The earth leakage detector is installed between the AC power supply and a load. The rectifier rectifies the AC power into direct current (DC) power. The controller causes the rectifier to perform half-wave rectification until earth leakage is detected by the earth leakage detector, and causes the rectifier to perform full-wave rectification when the earth leakage is detected by the earth leakage detector.