A central processing unit, connected to a main memory among a plurality of central processing units each including a cache memory, includes a control unit. The control unit executes a process including: classifying the plurality of central processing units into a smaller number than a total number of the plurality of central processing units, and writing to the main memory presence information indicating whether or not the same data as data stored in the main memory is held in a cache memory included in any of the central processing units that belong to a corresponding central processing unit group, for each central processing unit group of a plurality of central processing unit groups obtained by the classifying.