PURPOSE: To damp vehicle body vibration still more effectively by controlling damping force faithfully to a sky hook damper theory.

CONSTITUTION: A damping force control device for a shock absorber has a damping force control valve MO. The device has an upper spring speed detecting device M1 and a relative speed detecting device M2 to detect vertical directional relative speed between a sprung side and an unsprung side, and operation is carried out on target damping force according to the sprung side speed by means of a target damping force operation device M3, and the target damping force is corrected according to the sprung side speed and a relative speed direction by means of a corecting device M4, and operation is carried out on target valve opening of a damping force control valve from the corrected target damping force and the relative speed by means of a target valve opening operation device M5, and the damping force control valve is controlled according to the target valve opening by means of a control device M6.