  We propose a high-contrast coronagraph for direct imaging of young
Jupiter-like planets orbiting nearby bright stars. The coronagraph employs a
step-transmission filter in which the intensity is apodized with a finite
number of steps of identical transmission in each step. It should be installed
on a large ground-based telescope equipped with state-of-the-art adaptive
optics systems. In that case, contrast ratios around 10^-6 should be accessible
within 0.1 arc seconds of the central star. In recent progress, a coronagraph
with circular apodizing filter has been developing, which can be used for a
ground-based telescope with central obstruction and spider structure. It is
shown that ground-based direct imaging of Jupiter-like planets is promising
with current technology.
