An image forming apparatus which transfers, onto paper, a toner image formed on a belt-shaped image carrier including an elastic layer on a surface thereof, and forms an image includes a rigid blade which cleans the surface of the image carrier in contact with the image carrier which has transferred the toner image onto the paper; a roller which is upstream of the rigid blade in a rotation direction of the image carrier, and cleans the surface of the image carrier upstream of the rigid blade by coming in contact with the image carrier which has transferred the toner image onto the paper; a rigid blade holder which holds the rigid blade; and a roller holder which holds the roller. The rigid blade holder and the roller holder are installed with a gap therebetween.