You know it is really funny that you say that, because I was considering Chinese also, because of Kanji characters.
They are all originally Chinese, right?
Even the Hiragana is simplified Chinese characters!
So I am sincerely surprised how is that difficult for a native Chinese speaker to learn Japanese?!
Japanese is deeply influenced by Chinese, but in essence, it’s completely different from Chinese.
Although Japanese uses a large number of Chinese characters, its overall system is based on kana.
Each Chinese character carries a specific meaning, and when combined, the overall meaning still relates closely to the individual characters. In contrast, individual kana in Japanese have no meaning on their own.
The grammatical structure of Japanese is also entirely different from that of Chinese.
In short, for me, Japanese is just way too difficult — hahaha!
Ok. In that case I have hope for Chinese! Thank you! :)