A puncture guiding apparatus includes a detector and processing circuitry. The detector is configured to detect passage of a puncture needle, the detector arranged in a vicinity of a living body contacting surface of an ultrasonic probe that is brought into contact with a living body. The processing circuitry is configured to output identification information for identifying a positional relationship between the puncture needle and a scanning plane of the ultrasonic probe based on a detection result obtained by the detector.