An echo canceller which can respond to a sudden change in echo characteristics in real time and does not require an alteration outside the echo canceller, includes a smoothed sending-speech signal calculation means for calculating a smoothed sending-speech signal from the sending-speech signal, the smoothed sending-speech signal being obtained by smoothing the sending-speech signal a smoothed receiving-speech signal calculation means for calculating a smoothed receiving-speech signal from the receiving-speech signal, the smoothed receiving-speech signal being obtained by smoothing the receiving-speech signal a delay time information generation means for obtaining delay time information reflecting delay characteristics of an echo path in accordance with a correlation between the smoothed sending-speech signal and the smoothed receiving-speech signal and an update information generation means for obtaining update information indicating execution or suspension of updating of the tap coefficients of the adaptive filter, in accordance with the sending-speech signal, the receiving-speech signal, and the delay time information.
