After exposure of a divided area on a wafer is completed, for exposure of the next divided area, a control unit sends configuration information on control parameters necessary to expose the next divided area to a stage control system, sometime before the stage control system begins deceleration of a reticle stage and a wafer stage in a scanning direction. Therefore, both stages do not have to be suspended before acceleration for the stage control system to receive the configuration information on control parameters necessary to expose the next divided area, and since suspension time is not required, throughput can be improved. In this case, no serious problems occur, so the performance of other devices is not disturbed.