The present invention provides a laser annealing method for irradiating laser light L to an amorphous silicon thin film deposited on a substrate to obtain polysilicon, the method including: multiply irradiating the laser light L while changing an irradiation area of the laser light L on the amorphous silicon thin film to achieve such a grain size distribution that a crystal grain size of the polysilicon decreases from a central portion to a side edge portion at least along a center line C of the irradiation area of the laser light L. The above laser annealing method can reduce a leak current through a simple process.