Is there a word for “using a wrong kanji”?


This would be probably more common when writing personal names, but can happen
in a regular writing as well. Is there a Japanese word or expression for a
kanji “typo” – a situation, when you use a wrong kanji character? Not
necessarily from a technical reason such as misspelling, but because of a
mistaken recall or bad guessing as well.




You can simply use [誤字]{ご・じ} to mean the wrong letter. I believe it's
applicable to both kanji and kana.

If you ever take the [漢検]{かん・けん}, starting in level 4 there is a section
called [誤字訂正]{ご・じ・てい・せい} where you have to read a sentence with a purposefully
misspelled word. You have to identify the word, which kanji is wrong, and then
figure out (and write) the correct kanji based on the sentence context. Here's
an example:

> 犯人は沈目を守っているが、確定的な科学的証拠の前に否認は無意味だ。

The answer is

> 沈目 contains the mistake. It should be 沈黙. The sentence would translate as
> "The criminal is remaining silent (沈黙), but denial is useless in the face of
> definite scientific proof".




You can simply use [誤字]{ご・じ} to mean the wrong letter. I believe it's
applicable to both kanji and kana.

If you ever take the [漢検]{かん・けん}, starting in level 4 there is a section
called [誤字訂正]{ご・じ・てい・せい} where you have to read a sentence with a purposefully
misspelled word. You have to identify the word, which kanji is wrong, and then
figure out (and write) the correct kanji based on the sentence context. Here's
an example:

> 犯人は沈目を守っているが、確定的な科学的証拠の前に否認は無意味だ。

The answer is

> 沈目 contains the mistake. It should be 沈黙. The sentence would translate as
> "The criminal is remaining silent (沈黙), but denial is useless in the face of
> definite scientific proof".

