A system for controlling a vehicle opening/closing element according to the present invention comprises an irradiation unit for irradiating near-infrared light to the periphery of an opening/closing element, an image capture unit for capturing an image formed by the irradiated near-infrared light, a hand region extraction unit for extracting a user hand region on the basis of the luminance of the image captured by the image capture unit, an action detection unit for detecting movement of the user's hand from the extracted hand region, and a controller for determining whether the detected action matches a predetermined action that is set in advance and issuing an instruction to operate the opening/closing element on the basis of the determined action.