To realize a light emitting diode drive circuit for rapidly driving a light emitting diode without overshooting.

In the LED drive circuit 1, the output current Ipk0 of a differentiating circuit 21 for differentiating a drive signal Vin is transmitted through a nonlinear current transfer element 22, and output as a peaking current Ipk. The current obtained by adding the current Ipk and the drive current Idrv substantially proportional to the drive signal Vin is supplied to the diode 2. Further, the current transfer ratio of the transfer element 22 is set to lower at the time of turning on a lamp than that at the time of turning off the lamp. Thus, even when the output current Ipk of the circuit 21 is set larger to the degree capable of extincting the diode 2, overshooting of the light signal waveform an be prevented.