An image forming apparatus including: an image forming section having a intermediate transfer body to carry a toner image on a photoreceptor and transfer the toner image onto a sheet of paper; a cleaning section for removing residual toner on the intermediate transfer body by bringing a cleaning blade into close contact with the intermediate transfer body; and a control section for controlling a rotation of the intermediate transfer body so as to carry out a return action of a blade configuration which stops or reverses the rotation of the intermediate transfer body, when a rotation amount reaches a predetermined value, wherein the control section carries out the return action when the rotation amount reaches a value smaller than the predetermined value, in a case where a plurality of previous printing jobs is determined to be intermittent printing.