The invention relates to a communication device and a communication method. The communications device of the present invention performs an authentication with the device at the other end automatically or through a simple operation, independently of an authentication scheme supported by the device at the other end. A communications device includes: a connecting section for establishing a connection with the other communications device according to the IrSimple scheme; an authentication section for performing an authentication by the IrSimple scheme; a connecting section for establishing a connection with the other communications device according to the IrDA scheme, an authentication section for performing an authentication according to the IrDA scheme; and a protocol switching section for causing the connecting section to initiate a connection and causing the authentication section to perform an authentication, when an authentication by the authentication section is unsuccessful. This makes it possible to switch to a protocol of the IrDA scheme and perform communications according to the IrDA scheme when the other communications device does not support device authentication of the IrSimple scheme although being compliant with the IrSimple scheme.