To provide a negative electrode carbon material capable of suppressing capacity degradation which will occur due to repetition of a charge/discharge cycle, storage under a charged state, float charging, or the like. An artificial graphite for a negative electrode of a lithium secondary battery having a c-axis crystallite size L (112) of from 2.0 to 4.2 nm as calculated from a (112) diffraction line obtained by X-ray wide-angle diffractometry and having a half-value width ΔνG of from 15 to 19 cm−1 for a peak appearing in a wavelength region of from 1580 cm−1±100 cm−1 in the Raman spectroscopy using an argon ion laser light having a wavelength of 5145 angstrom.