Is there an equivalent Japanese phrase to "A red herring"?


In the english language, a "red herring" is something that misleads or
distracts from a relevant or important question. I would like to know if there
is an equivalent phrase in Japanese.




I haven't known the word "Red herring"!! And I confirmed the article below.  
<https://literarydevices.net/red-herring/>

It's not originally from Japanese so this may not be the answer for you, but
we commonly use "ミスリード" as the loan word of 'mislead'. In most cases I think
we can use that.

> Common Red Herring Examples: Example 2 (Eden example)

Common example 2 in the above article (about Eden) sounds exactly "ミスリード". And
it's also like "論点のすり替え" as Sadaharu-san explained.

> Literature Examples: Example #1: Da Vinci Code
>
> Literature Examples: Example #2: Sherlock Holmes: Hound of the Baskervilles

In the literature examples, we may call it "ミスリード" too. But it doesn't sound
common maybe because we use "ミスリード" for telling negative thought. Rather we
use "伏線"('foreshadowing') for such cases. Many Japanese like this word because
it makes stories exciting, so it's very popular word in Japan. However, "伏線"
mostly doesn't lead to false conclusion. Regardless of leading false
conclusion, we call such techniques in a literature "伏線".

However, the next one is far example from "ミスリード".

> Common Red Herring Examples: Example 1 (Conversation with a child)

Interesting!! I often see such a conversation but I don't have any exact word
to describe this situation in Japanese!!

Anyone know?

