A vector quantization apparatus performs coding of a linear predictive coding coefficient by multi-stage vector quantization. A first codebook and a second codebook store code vectors, and a storing section stores scalars. A first quantizing section extracts a first code vector stored in the first codebook and performs first stage quantization for quantizing a target vector using the first code vector. A second quantizing section extracts a second code vector stored in the second codebook, calculates a third code vector by multiplying the second code vector and one of the scalars stored in the storing section, performs distance calculation using the target vector, the first code vector and the third code vector, and performs second stage quantization for quantizing the target vector using a result of the distance calculation. Each scalar stored in the storing section is associated with at least one of the vectors stored in the first codebook.