1. A person recognition method for comparing a photographic image showing a face of a person to be recognized with face images of a plurality of registrants registered in a database, the person recognition method comprising the steps of: subtracting a date of taking the face image from a date of taking the photographic image, and calculating a number of elapsed years from the date of taking the face image; selecting one of a plurality of image comparison methods for comparing the photographic image with the face image in accordance with the number of elapsed years; comparing the photographic image with the face image by the selected image comparison method, and calculating a degree of resemblance between the photographic image and the face image; and displaying personal data of the one or more registrants, the personal data with the higher degree of resemblance being given a high priority to be displayed.