Communication assistance device, communication assistance method, and communication assistance program

A communication assistance device enables smooth and active communication between users, and includes a topic node generation unit that calculates a topic appropriateness value based on the number of pieces of content from which meta information has been extracted or the number of times each piece of content including the meta information has been viewed, and generates a first topic node including the meta information and the topic appropriateness value, an integrated topic node generation unit that obtains first topic nodes for a plurality of users, and generates, for every item of meta information, an integrated topic node storing the topic appropriateness value corresponding to each user, a topic node expansion unit that generates an expanded topic node as a new topic node based on the item of meta information for the integrated topic node, a common-topic-candidate extraction unit that extracts a common topic candidate between the users from the integrated topic node or the expanded topic node, a display unit that displays the common topic candidate, and an input unit that receives input of at least one of the displayed common topic candidates.