The present invention relates to a blood vessel authentication apparatus comprising: a light emitting section configured to emit near-infrared source light in a predetermined direction toward a part of a person, said part having an epidermal layer and a deep layer beneath said epidermal layer, said deep layer having blood vessels that carry blood, said predetermined direction being slanted relative to a normal direction of a target portion of said part an imaging section configured to detect scattered light which is a portion of said source light that has penetrated the epidermal layer and is scattered by tissue in said deep layer, said tissue in said deep layer scattering light such that less light is detected in regions corresponding to the blood vessels than other regions without the blood vessels and an authentication section configured to authenticate an identify of a person associated with the part based on a comparison of the scattered light detected by said imaging section and blood vessel information previously stored.The present invention further relates to a blood vessel authentication method.
