By a method that includes coking a residue resulting from distillation of crude oil under reduced pressure and having API gravity of 1 to 5, an asphaltene content of 10 to 50%, a resin content of 5 to 30%, and a sulfur content of 1 to 12% to obtain coke, pulverizing the coke to obtain a carbon powder, and heating the carbon powder at 1000 to 3500 deg C., a graphite anode active material for use in a lithium secondary battery is obtained that has, in X-ray powder diffraction, d002 of not smaller than 0.3354 nm and not greater than 0.337 nm, Lc(004) of smaller than 100 nm, La(110) of not smaller than 100 nm, and a half width of the peak of a plane (101) at a diffraction angle (2θ) of 44 degrees to 45 degrees of not smaller than 0.65 degree.