To provide a battery box capable of reducing the apparatus size, cost, and the number of assembly steps.

A battery box 4 is provided with a battery latching claw 5 for preventing drop-off of a battery seated at a battery chamber 41 of an apparatus such as a camera or the like. The battery latching claw 5 has an elastic deforming strip 52 which is elastically deformed during the battery seating time, wherein the elastic deforming strip 52 is formed with a conductive plate material, and constitutes a switch SW in combination with a switch strip 6 consisting of a conductive material which comes contact with or comes free from the elastic deforming strip depending on deformation of the elastic deforming strip. The SW is assembled with the components of the battery box 4, which eliminates the need for incorporating the switch into the apparatus as an independent component, thereby reducing the apparatus size, cost, and the number of assembly steps.