Ghost word and Ghost Kanji in Japanese


In Japanese, are there any words/kanji that are written in dictionarys but
actually don't exist at all? Like the "Ghost word" in English.




One set of these which is quite well-known are the
[幽霊文字{ゆうれいもじ}](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B9%BD%E9%9C%8A%E6%96%87%E5%AD%97#:%7E:text=%E5%B9%BD%E9%9C%8A%E6%96%87%E5%AD%97%EF%BC%88%E3%82%86%E3%81%86%E3%82%8C%E3%81%84%E3%82%82%E3%81%98,%E3%82%86%E3%81%86%E3%82%8C%E3%81%84%E3%81%98%EF%BC%89%E3%81%A8%E3%82%82%E5%91%BC%E3%81%B6%E3%80%82),
which were encoded in JIS and from there into Unicode.

As the Wikipedia article shows, JIS purportedly created the character set by
gathering characters from four character dictionaries. However, some of the
characters that ended up being encoded cannot actually be found in those
dictionaries. These may be thought of as fabrications (although in a different
way to "ghost words" in English like
'[dord](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dord)', which arose from
misunderstandings).

For example, one of these, 妛, contains an extra horizontal stroke in the
middle which was thought to have arisen when a photocopy was made where two
pieces of paper with the individual character parts were joined together,
intending to form the character . Some so-called 幽霊文字 were later found to be
true rare characters used in person or place names. But due to their obscure
origins, there is not a firm consensus on where others of these characters
really came from.




One set of these which is quite well-known are the
[幽霊文字{ゆうれいもじ}](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B9%BD%E9%9C%8A%E6%96%87%E5%AD%97#:%7E:text=%E5%B9%BD%E9%9C%8A%E6%96%87%E5%AD%97%EF%BC%88%E3%82%86%E3%81%86%E3%82%8C%E3%81%84%E3%82%82%E3%81%98,%E3%82%86%E3%81%86%E3%82%8C%E3%81%84%E3%81%98%EF%BC%89%E3%81%A8%E3%82%82%E5%91%BC%E3%81%B6%E3%80%82),
which were encoded in JIS and from there into Unicode.

As the Wikipedia article shows, JIS purportedly created the character set by
gathering characters from four character dictionaries. However, some of the
characters that ended up being encoded cannot actually be found in those
dictionaries. These may be thought of as fabrications (although in a different
way to "ghost words" in English like
'[dord](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dord)', which arose from
misunderstandings).

For example, one of these, 妛, contains an extra horizontal stroke in the
middle which was thought to have arisen when a photocopy was made where two
pieces of paper with the individual character parts were joined together,
intending to form the character . Some so-called 幽霊文字 were later found to be
true rare characters used in person or place names. But due to their obscure
origins, there is not a firm consensus on where others of these characters
really came from.

