To provide a wafer holding apparatus with a wafer lift, which has a simple and inexpensive structure and enables lift pins to be synchronized to move up and down.

The wafer holding apparatus 10, where a plurality of lift pins 46 for supporting the wafer 18 are arranged in the periphery or the periphery of a wafer holding table, comprises the wafer lift 22 where the wafer 188 is moved between the upper position at which the wafer 18 is separated above from the wafer holding table and the lower position at which the wafer 18 is placed on the wafer holding table by making the lift pin 46 move up and down. This wafer lift apparatus 22 further comprises a cam 38 that can rotate on the central axis of the wafer holding table under the wafer holding table, and is constituted so that a plurality of lift pins 46 move up and down simultaneously by means of a cam surface 40 formed on the cam 38.