IMAGE ENCODING APPARATUS, IMAGE ENCODING METHOD, AND RECORDING MEDIUM

Provided is an image encoding apparatus capable of encoding a region important to a user with high quality. An update interval index calculation unit calculates an update interval index representing an index having a long update interval in an entire update tile overlapping the update region for each update region. An importance region specification unit specifies an important region, from each update region by using the update interval index. An quality control unit allocates a code amount, which is larger than a result obtained by dividing the total target code amount per one frame proportionally according to a ratio of an area of an entire important region with respect to an area of an entire update region, as a target code amount of the entire important region and specifies a quality value of the entire important region on the basis of the target code amount.