diff --git a/Lib/java/std_string.i b/Lib/java/std_string.i
index ceae53037..d0169cb6b 100644
--- a/Lib/java/std_string.i
+++ b/Lib/java/std_string.i
@@ -196,10 +196,10 @@ class wstring;
   jenv->ReleaseStringChars($input, $1_pstr); %}
 
 %typemap(directorin,descriptor="Ljava/lang/String;") const wstring &
-%{jsize $1_len = $1->length();
+%{jsize $1_len = $1.length();
   jchar *conv_buf = new jchar[$1_len];
   for (jsize i = 0; i < $1_len; ++i) {
-    conv_buf[i] = (jchar)(*$1)[i];
+    conv_buf[i] = (jchar)($1)[i];
   }
   $input = jenv->NewString(conv_buf, $1_len);
   delete [] conv_buf; %}