1. A method for magnetic character recognition comprising: a standard waveform preparation process for preparing a standard waveform that is used as a datum in an operation of reading magnetic ink characters, printed with a magnetic ink, by using a magnetic head; a waveform generation process for generating a regeneration waveform from a character string of the magnetic ink characters printed on a surface of an information recording medium; a segmentation process for segmenting a character waveform of each of the magnetic ink characters from the regeneration waveform; a comparison process for comparing the character waveform segmented through the segmentation process with the standard waveform; a selection process for selecting a plurality of the standard waveforms of candidate characters in accordance with a comparison result of the comparison process; a shift process for shifting the standard waveforms of the candidate characters and the character waveform relatively in a generating direction of the regeneration waveform and its counter direction at predefined intervals; and an arithmetic operation process for calculating a coefficient of coincidence to indicate a degree of coincidence between the standard waveforms of the candidate characters and the character waveform at each shift position in the shift process; wherein, according to a calculation result of the arithmetic operation process, a read character is identified with the candidate character that has the greatest value among all the coefficient values of coincidence.