According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes a calculation unit and a recognition unit. The calculation unit is configured to calculate a first similarity degree group which is composed of similarity degrees between respective characters constituting a first character string appearing on a first image and respective candidate characters in a candidate character group, and to calculate a second similarity degree group which is composed of similarity degrees between respective characters constituting a second character string appearing on a second image and the respective candidate characters in the candidate character group.