A handwritten character recognition apparatus has a character string input area of a size that allows a user to hand write a plurality of characters thereon using a stylus. A coordinate detection unit extracts a coordinate string for each stroke that forms the handwritten character string. An input completion judgement unit judges an immediately preceding handwritten character string to be complete if a time difference between a last coordinate of an immediately preceding stroke and a first coordinate of a stroke being input is at least a predetermined time, when the first coordinate of the stroke is detected in a first area of the character string input area. A character segmentation unit segments a stroke string for each character from all the strokes of the previously input hand written character string from which a character recognition unit recognizes each character and outputs a character string which is the recognition result.