A lighting circuit for high-pressure discharge lamp or high-pressure discharge lamp for vehicular use including a DC voltage booster circuit, a voltage detector, a current detector, an a control circuit. The booster circuit boosts the input voltage from a DC voltage input terminal to provide an output voltage that is converted into an AC voltage to be applied to a high-pressure discharge lamp. The voltage detector detects the output voltage of the booster circuit. The current detector detects an output current of the booster circuit. The control circuit applies a control signal corresponding to signals from the voltage detector and the current detector to control the output voltage of the booster circuit. The control circuit, the voltage detector and the current detector constitute a feedback system for the booster circuit. Also, in lighting the discharge lamp from a cool state, therefore, the operation of the timer circuit causes transition to constant power control using rated power after execution of control so as to supply power exceeding the rated power to the output voltage detector and the output current detector sequentially.