Disclosed is a melanin production inhibitor which has anexcellent inhibitory activity on the production of melanin and ishighly safe. The melanin production inhibitor comprises a compoundrepresented by general formula (1) (excluding clotrimazole) and/ora pharmacologically acceptable salt thereof. In the formula, A1,A2 and A3 are independently selected from a hydrogen atom, an arylgroup which may have a substituent, and an aromatic heterocyclicgroup which may have a substituent, wherein at least one of A1,A2 and A3 is selected from the aryl group and the aromatic heterocyclicgroup, the total number of carbon atoms contained in A1, A2 andA3 is 6 to 50 and, when at least two of A1, A2 and A3 representthe aryl groups or the aromatic heterocyclic groups, the adjacenttwo aryl or aromatic heterocyclic groups may be bound to each othervia an alkyl chain or an alkenyl chain to form a ring； m representsan integer of 0 to 2； X represents a hetero atom, a hydrogen atom,or a carbon atom； R1 and R2 are independently selected from a hydrogenatom and an oxo group, wherein when one of R1 and R2 is an oxo group,the other is not present； and R3 is selected from a hydrogen atom,and a C1-8 hydrocarbon group in which one or some of hydrogen atomsor carbon atoms may be substituted by a hetero atom or hetero atoms,wherein the number of R3' s present in the compound corresponds toX and, when two or more R3' s are present, the R3' sare independently present and the adjacent two R3' s may be boundto each other to form, together with X, a ring, and the terminalof R3 may be bound to a carbon atom to which A1, A2 and A3 are bound,thereby forming a ring.
