An image processing apparatus includes a receiving mechanism configured to receive a request, from at least one different image processing apparatus connected via a network, for transmission of a codestream generated in a way such that image data is divided into at least one region, each region being hierarchically compressed and stored in the image processing apparatus, a decomposing mechanism configured to decompose a codestream and retrieve the codestream in a component unit, an extracting mechanism configured to extract a target region from the codestream, a primary priority assigning mechanism configured to assign priority to the target region extracted by the extracting mechanism, and a primary transmitting mechanism configured for transmission of the codestream, decomposed in a component unit corresponding to the target region, to the different image processing apparatus requesting transmission of the codestream based on the priority assigned by the primary priority assigning mechanism.