An optical scanning apparatus includes an optical deflector that deflects a light beam at a substantially constant angular velocity and an optical system that condenses the deflected light beam onto a to-be-scanned surface thereby performing optical scanning of the to-be-scanned surface. The to-be-scanned surface is a surface of a latent image carrier having a charge generation layer that generates carriers and a charge transport layer. A driving unit drives the optical deflector at a scanning frequency at which exposure is attained in a state where the carriers generated at the charge generation layer of the latent image carrier substantially stay still.