<p>There has been a problem that image degradation becomes significant if an intra prediction mode is incorrectly selected in a face contour portion in a low bit rate mode. An image encoding device includes: a face detection unit which performs face detection in an input image; and an intra prediction mode control unit which performs an intra prediction mode control according to a face detection result from the face detection unit. The intra prediction mode can appropriately select an intra prediction mode of a face contour by selecting an intra prediction mode according to the position where the block to be currently processed exists. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce image degradation of a face image in a low bit rate mode.</p>
