Sustain discharge is stably caused while power consumption is reduced, and image display quality is improved. A plasma display device has a plasma display panel, an electric power recovering circuit for raising or falling a sustain pulse by resonating an inductor and the inter-electrode capacity of a display electrode pair, and a sustain pulse generating circuit for alternately applying, to the display electrode pair, as many sustain pulses as the number corresponding to the luminance weight in the sustain period of a plurality of subfields that are disposed in one field and have initializing, address, and sustain periods. The sustain pulse generating circuit switches and generates at least three kinds of sustain pulses including a first sustain pulse serving as a reference, a second sustain pulse that rises more gently than the first sustain pulse, and a third sustain pulse that rises more steeply than the first sustain pulse.