PARKING ASSISTANCE DEVICE AND PARKING ASSISTANCE METHOD

A parking assistance device includes: a map generation unit configured to generate a map recording the position of an obstacle around a vehicle and the positions of parking areas available for the vehicle to park; a parking-area determination unit configured to determine a parking area to park the vehicle, out of the parking areas recorded on the map, based on the generated map and the obtained position information; a contact detection unit configured to perform a simulation on the map where the vehicle is turned until the vehicle has approximately the same orientation as the parking area and detect a contact position at which the vehicle comes into contact with the obstacle recorded on the map; and a movement-direction determination unit configured to determine a movement direction in which the vehicle is to be moved from a position indicated by the position information, based on the contact position detected by the contact detection unit.