A conversation supporting apparatus for supporting conversation among a plurality of participants in an occasion in which the participants participate, comprises personal information storing unit for storing personal information including at least one characteristic value representing a characteristic of a participant; person identifying unit for detecting presence of a participant, and identifying the detected participant; personal information retrieving unit for retrieving personal information on the participant identified by the person identifying unit from the personal information storing unit; characteristic value extracting unit for extracting a predetermined characteristic value from the personal information retrieved by the personal information retrieving unit; and characteristic value outputting unit for outputting the characteristic value extracted by the characteristic value extracting unit.