A barcode scanner comprising a laser driving circuit to drive a laser by a pulse signal generated by an oscillator, a preamplifier to amplify a voltage of a barcode signal from a photodetector corresponding to a reflected light from a barcode scanned by a light output of the laser driven by the pulse signal, a high-pass filter to remove a direct current component contained in an output signal of the preamplifier, a variable gain amplifier which controls an amplification gain of an output signal of the high-pass filter and performs automatic gain control to set an output level almost constant, a synchronous detector to detect a pulse signal contained in an output signal of the variable gain amplifier in synchronization with the output pulse of the oscillator, and a binarization circuit to binarize an output signal of the synchronous detector.