To precisely authenticate a person by using information relating to pores of his or her skin.

An authentication method for authenticating the person by using information relating to pores of his or her skin includes: an authentication area setting step in which a user sets an area of pores to be authenticated; a pore photographing step of photographing a picture including the authentication area set by the authentication area setting step; a pore extraction step of extracting information relating to pores from the pore picture photographed in the pore photographing step; and an authentication step of authenticating the person on the basis of arrangement information and/or feature information of pores extracted in the pore extraction step and arrangement information and/or feature information of pores of a plurality of preliminarily registered persons.

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