In order to provide an individual identification device for enabling good blood-vessel imaging even in a noncontact way and using an identifying method suitable for noncontact imaging, the device comprises an imaging device for imaging blood vessels of a hand of the user in a noncontact way including a position/direction/shape instructing unit for instructing the user to hold up his hand, one or more irradiating units for irradiating the hand with near infrared radiation, and one or more imaging units for producing an image by near infrared radiation a blood-vessel image extracting unit for extracting the blood-vessel image from the produced image a blood-vessel image storage unit for storing the hand blood-vessel image of each user and an identifying unit for identifying the user by comparing the extracted blood-vessel image with the registered blood-vessel image.
