1. An object detection device detecting an object near a vehicle from an input video image, the input video image being a video image of surroundings of the vehicle shot from the vehicle, the device comprising: a video image converting section which converts the input video image to a characteristics video image in which image characteristics have been extracted from the input video image; a video images-classified-by-distance extracting/composing section which extracts areas which differ according to distances from the characteristics video image as video images classified by distance, on the basis of the distance from the vehicle, and composes a composite video image using the video images classified by distance; a first object detecting section which performs first object detection processing of scanning the composite video image composed by the video images-classified-by-distance extracting/composing section to determine a position on the composite video image of an object detected from the composite video image; an object-candidate position specifying section which determines an object-candidate position where there is a possibility of existence of the object, in the video images classified by distance, on the basis of the position on the composite video image of the object detected by the first object detecting section; a second object detecting section which performs, for the object-candidate position determined by the object-candidate position specifying section, second object detection processing for identifying corresponding object positions in the video images classified by distance; and an object position identifying section which identifies an object position in the input video image on the basis of the object positions determined by the second object detecting section.