An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: an ink discharger provided with a plurality of nozzles configured to discharge ink; a recording controller configured to discharge ink onto a recording medium from the plurality of nozzles of the ink discharger, and configured to use the ink discharger to record on the recording medium a composite test image including a halftone image with a predetermined density and a defective nozzle specifying image which specifies a defective nozzle in which a defect in ink discharge is occurring, the defective nozzle specifying image including a plurality of lines (La) recorded by discharging ink continuously from one nozzle; and a defective nozzle specifier configured to obtain information regarding a defect in the ink discharge from a nozzle based on a density distribution of the halftone image read from read data of the composite test image and configured to specify a defective nozzle based on the above information and a portion in the defective nozzle specifying image of the read data; wherein the ink jet recording apparatus is configured to record the halftone image with a correction process to suppress the decrease in the image quality due to a defective nozzle previously detected by the defective nozzle specifying image and to record the defective nozzle specifying image without performing the correction process; and the ink jet recording apparatus is further configured to specify a region of color unevenness based on the density distribution of the halftone image to determine whether there is a defective nozzle and then to analyze said lines (La) of the defective nozzle specifying image corresponding to said region. an ink discharger provided with a plurality of nozzles configured to discharge ink; a recording controller configured to discharge ink onto a recording medium from the plurality of nozzles of the ink discharger, and configured to use the ink discharger to record on the recording medium a composite test image including a halftone image with a predetermined density and a defective nozzle specifying image which specifies a defective nozzle in which a defect in ink discharge is occurring, the defective nozzle specifying image including a plurality of lines (La) recorded by discharging ink continuously from one nozzle; and a defective nozzle specifier configured to obtain information regarding a defect in the ink discharge from a nozzle based on a density distribution of the halftone image read from read data of the composite test image and configured to specify a defective nozzle based on the above information and a portion in the defective nozzle specifying image of the read data; wherein the ink jet recording apparatus is configured to record the halftone image with a correction process to suppress the decrease in the image quality due to a defective nozzle previously detected by the defective nozzle specifying image and to record the defective nozzle specifying image without performing the correction process; and the ink jet recording apparatus is further configured to specify a region of color unevenness based on the density distribution of the halftone image to determine whether there is a defective nozzle and then to analyze said lines (La) of the defective nozzle specifying image corresponding to said region.