An image attribute discrimination apparatus that is adapted to discriminate an attribute as a characteristic of a type of a scene expressed by image data, by comparing a feature quantity from the image data against a model feature quantity that is previously defined with respect to a specific scene, the image attribute discrimination apparatus comprising: a heterogeneous region specifying unit (11, 11a) for specifying a character region including a character as a heterogeneous region from the image data based on a determination by the heterogeneous region specifying unit (11, 11a) whether the image data contains said character region; a target pixel determination unit for setting each pixel in the image data excluding the character region, thereby defining an analysis target region and for determining for each pixel in the character region specified by the heterogeneous region specifying unit (11, 11a) whether a respective pixel belongs to the analysis target region by setting said respective pixel in the character region to be a target pixel if it does not belong to a character or by setting said respective pixel in the character region to be an out-of-target pixel being excluded from becoming an analysis target if it belongs to a character, a restoration unit for restoring a respective pixel being an out-of-target pixel determined by the target pixel determination unit to be a restored pixel by restoring a pixel value corresponding to that of an original pixel of an original background hidden behind the character, wherein the target pixel determination unit is adapted to respecify the restored pixel restored by the restoration unit as restored target pixel, and an attribute discrimination unit adapted to discriminate the attribute of the image data by comparing a histogram representing said feature quantity extracted from the pixels of the image data including each target pixel and each restored target pixel except each out-of-target pixel of the image data, against a model histogram representing said model feature quantity that is previously defined with respect to said specific scene. a heterogeneous region specifying unit (11, 11a) for specifying a character region including a character as a heterogeneous region from the image data based on a determination by the heterogeneous region specifying unit (11, 11a) whether the image data contains said character region; a target pixel determination unit for setting each pixel in the image data excluding the character region, thereby defining an analysis target region and for determining for each pixel in the character region specified by the heterogeneous region specifying unit (11, 11a) whether a respective pixel belongs to the analysis target region by setting said respective pixel in the character region to be a target pixel if it does not belong to a character or by setting said respective pixel in the character region to be an out-of-target pixel being excluded from becoming an analysis target if it belongs to a character, a restoration unit for restoring a respective pixel being an out-of-target pixel determined by the target pixel determination unit to be a restored pixel by restoring a pixel value corresponding to that of an original pixel of an original background hidden behind the character, wherein the target pixel determination unit is adapted to respecify the restored pixel restored by the restoration unit as restored target pixel, and an attribute discrimination unit adapted to discriminate the attribute of the image data by comparing a histogram representing said feature quantity extracted from the pixels of the image data including each target pixel and each restored target pixel except each out-of-target pixel of the image data, against a model histogram representing said model feature quantity that is previously defined with respect to said specific scene.