Chinese vs Japanese: which is harder, and which to learn

Chinese is harder to hear and read at first; Japanese gets harder as you go. Neither is quick.

By Mandarin The WildUpdated 27 October 20263 min read

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Side by side

Compared	Chinese (Mandarin)	Japanese
Writing	characters (汉字) only	three scripts: hiragana, katakana and kanji
Characters	2,500 cover 98% of a web page	2,136 everyday kanji
Readings	usually one per character	often two or more per kanji
Sounds	four tones change the meaning	few sounds; pitch accent in some words
Word order	subject, verb, object, like English	subject, object, verb
Verbs	never change form	change for tense and politeness
Speakers	about 1.18 billion	about 126 million

Writing: one script vs three

Chinese is written in characters alone, and pinyin is only a learner’s aid; in our count of Chinese web text, the 2,500 most common characters make up 98% of a page². Japanese mixes three scripts: hiragana and katakana, two syllable alphabets of 46 basic signs each, and kanji, characters taken from Chinese⁴. Japan’s list of everyday kanji has 2,136⁵.

The catch is the readings. A Chinese character is usually read one way; a kanji often has an on’yomi, a reading borrowed from Chinese, and a kun’yomi, the native Japanese word with that meaning, and which one applies depends on the word⁴. So a Japanese learner learns fewer characters but more readings for each.

Many characters have different shapes in each place, because China and Japan simplified them separately: “picture” is 图 in China, 図 in Japan and 圖 in Taiwan; “to look at” is 观, 観 and 觀⁶. Many others, like 学 (study) and 人 (person), are the same everywhere.

Sounds: tones vs pitch accent

Mandarin has four tones and a neutral tone, and a word said in the wrong tone is a different word: 买 (mǎi) is “to buy”, 卖 (mài) “to sell”. Japanese has few sounds, all easy for English speakers, and a pitch accent that tells apart a few pairs: hashi, said high-low, is “chopsticks” and, said low-high, “bridge”⁷. Most learners find Japanese far easier to pronounce and to hear.

我学过一点儿日语。

Rìyǔ: “I’ve learned a little Japanese.”

日rì语yǔ

Noun

Japanese (language)

Also written 日語

Grammar: Chinese is simpler

Chinese words never change form: no conjugation, no plurals, no politeness endings. 我吃饭 (wǒ chī fàn) is “I eat”, “I ate” or “I will eat”, with time words to say when. Japanese puts the verb last, marks each part of the sentence with a particle, and changes its verbs for tense and politeness⁸: watashi wa gohan o tabemasu, “I eat rice”, is word for word “I [topic] rice [object] eat”.

Does one help with the other?

Yes, mostly in reading. Japanese took thousands of words from Chinese with their characters, so many words look alike and mean the same: 大学 (university) and 电话/電話 (telephone) are written alike in both. A Chinese reader can often guess the meaning of a Japanese sign, but not how it sounds, and the grammar has to be learned from scratch. Going from Japanese to Chinese, the characters help and the tones are new.

Which should you learn?

Learn Chinese for the bigger language: more than a billion speakers, China and Taiwan, business and the most content. Its grammar is simple; put the effort into tones and characters early.
Learn Japanese for Japan, anime, games and its books. It is easier to start speaking; put the effort into kanji readings and grammar.
Want both? Start with the one you will use most. Chinese first makes Japanese kanji easier; Japanese first makes Chinese characters familiar but not the sounds.

How long Chinese takes, level by level, is in our guide to how long it takes to learn Chinese, and Mandarin vs Chinese covers Cantonese and Taiwan. If you choose Chinese, our Library has graded stories from HSK 1, and the extension gives the meaning of any Chinese word on any page.

Questions

Is Chinese or Japanese harder to learn?

Both are in the US Foreign Service Institute’s hardest group, at about 88 weeks of full-time study. Chinese is harder at the start (tones, characters only); Japanese is easier to pronounce but harder to read and build sentences in (three scripts, several readings per kanji, verbs that change form).

Should I learn Chinese or Japanese first?

The one you will use most. Chinese has more than a billion speakers and simpler grammar; Japanese is easier to start speaking. Learning Chinese first makes Japanese kanji easier to read.

Can Chinese people read Japanese?

Partly. Many Japanese words are written with the same characters and mean the same, so a Chinese reader can often guess the meaning of a sign or a headline, but not the sounds, and not the grammar written in hiragana.

Sources

Checked on 27 October 2026. Prices and features change; tell us if one has.