An image forming apparatus that conveys a long belt-like recording sheet on a conveyance path and forms an image on the recording sheet when the recording sheet passes through an image forming section, the image forming apparatus comprising: a recording medium drive component that is disposed downstream of the image forming section in a conveyance direction on the conveyance path and conveys the recording medium; a tension imparting component that is disposed upstream of the image forming section in the conveyance direction on the conveyance path and imparts tension to the recording medium; and a control unit which, when a printing operation for forming an image is started, drives the tension imparting component to impart tension to the recording medium between the recording medium drive component and the tension imparting component, and starts the recording medium conveyance operation.