A target image of coding is separated into sequences of a plurality of frames, that is, shots, and differences between the shots and shots similar to the shots are coded (reference frames for each frame in the target shot of coding are frames corresponding thereto in a shot similar to the target shot). As shown in the figure, for example, a shot “A3” refers to a similar shot “A0” (prediction) and “A1” or “A2” refers to both shots “A0” and “A3” (bidirectional prediction), respectively for coding.