In a contact lens visual inspection method and apparatus, a contact lens insertion portion of a container is first imaged by an image pickup device and then an area which locates on the container and is unnecessary for the visual inspection of a contact lens is extracted from the image of the contact lens insertion portion to form a mask image. Thereafter, a system containing the contact lens insertion portion of the container, the preservation liquid filled in the contact lens insertion portion and the contact lens placed in the contact lens insertion portion is imaged as an inspection object by the imaging device to obtain an inspection object image, the inspection object image is overlapped with the mask image, and the mask image is subtracted from the inspection object image to set as a visual inspection area the area corresponding to a subtracting image obtained by said subtracting step. The defects of the contact lens such as soil, foreign matter, scratch, breakage, peripheral damage, etc. detected for the visual inspection area.