Alexia with agraphia of kanji (Japanese morphograms)

The case of the right-handed young Japanese woman with alexia with agraphia of kanji (the Japanese morphograms) due to a small circumscribed haematoma in the left posterior inferior temporal gyrus is described. Her chief complaint was the inability to read and write kanji. Detailed examination showed that her alexia with agraphia was much more predominant for kanji than kana (the Japanese syllabograms). These facts suggest that the processing of kanji and kana involves different intrahemispheric mechanisms.