INK JET RECORDING APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DETECTING DEFECTIVE NOZZLE

Provided are an ink jet recording apparatus that is capable of more appropriately specifying a defective nozzle, and a method for detecting a defective nozzle. The ink jet recording apparatus is provided with: an ink discharge part provided with a plurality of nozzles 243 for discharging ink; a recording control means for causing the ink discharge part to record, on a recording medium P, a composite test image 60 that includes a halftone image 61 having a prescribed density and a defective nozzle specifying image 62 for specifying a defective nozzle in which an ink discharge failure has occurred, by discharging the ink from the nozzles 243 of the ink discharge part onto the recording medium P; and a defective nozzle specifying means for acquiring information about ink discharge failure from the nozzles 243 on the basis of the density distribution of the halftone image 61 read from read data of the composite test image 60, and specifying the defective nozzle on the basis of the information and a part of the read data relating to the defective nozzle specifying image 62.