To provide a Y/C separation circuit capable of separating a standard signal and a nonstandard signal in a composite video signal of a PAL method into a proper luminance signal and chrominance signal.

This Y/C separation circuit is provided with: an adaptive comb filter for generating a chrominance signal by using a video signal of a processing target line and video signals before and after the video signal; a bandpass filter for extracting the chrominance signal in the video signal of the processing target line; a correlation detection circuit for detecting a horizontal correlation of the video signal in the processing target line, a vertical correlation of a luminance signal in the video signals between the processing target line and lines before and after the processing target line and a vertical correlation of a chrominance signal in the video signals of the processing target line and the lines before and after the processing target line; a selector for selecting an output of the adaptive comb filter when both the vertical correlation of the luminance signal and the vertical correlation of the chrominance signal are detected to exist and selecting an output of the bandpass filter when it is detected that the horizontal correlation of the video signal exists and no vertical correlation of the luminance signal and the chrominance signal exists; and a luminance signal generating part for using an output chrominance signal of the selector and the video signal of the processing target line to generate a luminance signal.