According to an aspect, a character input device includes: a touch panel capable of detecting touches on a plurality of points; and a control unit for displaying a plurality of buttons on the touch panel and determining whether a first touch gesture in which a touch position with respect to the touch panel is continuously changed occurs. When detecting occurrence of a second touch gesture being a further touch on a different area from an area where the first touch gesture occurs while the first touch gesture occurs in the area where the buttons are displayed, the control unit is configured to receive, as an input, a character corresponding to the button corresponding to the touch position of the first touch gesture when the second touch gesture occurs.