An image processing apparatus for an endoscope includes an image acquisition circuit configured to acquire an image captured by using the endoscope, an interference area setting circuit configured to set, on the image, an interference area having a different characteristic from an observation target in the image, and an interference area corrector configured to perform correction on the image, the correction including a reduction in luminance of the interference area. The interference area setting circuit includes an interference candidate area extractor configured to extract at least one interference candidate area based on the different characteristic from the observation target, and an interference area selector configured to select the interference area from the at least one interference candidate area based on luminance distribution in the at least one interference candidate area.
