A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal panel and an illumination unit. The illumination unit has a planar light emitting region formed by an EL element. The light emitting region is formed by a plurality of linear light emitting regions that extend in a direction perpendicular to the vertical scanning direction of liquid crystal. The linear light emitting regions are switched between a light emitting state and a non-light emitting state based on a command signal from a controller in a manner that the linear light emitting regions sequentially emit light in synchronization with vertical scanning of the liquid crystal. Each linear light emitting region is controlled to be in the non-light emitting state at least during a drive data rewriting period of a portion of the liquid crystal immediately above the linear light emitting region.