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Japanese and Chinese are written mostly with the same letters, but they are different languages. Just like English and Spanish. If you have no idea of Spanish, you won't understand a word of spoken Spanish.
The fact that Spanish and English are written with the same letters hardly helps. If you run across written Spanish, you might occasionally find some words that look familiar, like "el presidente de los Estados Unidos de México", but that doesn't mean you'll be able to understand a single complete sentence out of a full newspaper. A Chinese trying to read Japanese finds themself in the same situation.
Anyway, even if you can't read a single letter, written Japanese is easy to tell apart fron written Chinese.
The figure is from
a manga translated to Chinese.
Most letters are very involved.
And this is Japanese.
Some letters look involved and
others look like worms. The involved ones are Chinese letters
(which the Japanese call "kanji") and the simple ones are
used only in Japan ("kana").
Japanese pronunciation guideHow to Read Japanese Manga
Copyright (c) 2003-2008
Jordi Mas Trullenque.
email: jordimastrullenque at gmail dot com
http://purl.oclc.org/NET/manga/japochino.en.html
Last revised: 2008-10-10