The invention relates to the technical field of photoacoustic imaging and discloses a rapid photoacoustic tomography device and a rapid photoacoustic tomography method based on limited-angle scanning. The method comprises the following steps of: transmitting pulse laser into an imaging sample to generate a photoacoustic signal, acquiring the photoacoustic signal at a limited position on an arc through an ultrasonic detector unit, amplifying the signal through a signal amplifier, converting the photoacoustic signal into an electric signal through an analog / digital (A / D) converter, and finally transmitting the electric signal to an oscilloscope to finish digital signal acquisition; inputting the photoacoustic signal of the imaging sample into a computer, performing filtering and Fourier transform processing on the photoacoustic signal through the computer, extracting the frequency domain information of the photoacoustic signal according to experiment conditions, establishing a forward projection operator and a measurement matrix, and performing reconstruction imaging on the signal based on a quick thinning algorithm through the computer. The method and the device have the advantages of short signal acquisition time, high reconstruction speed, convenience in operation, high adaptability, high expansibility and the like.