Simply so, can a Japanese person read Chinese?
If you haven't at some point been told, “We Japanese can read Chinese,” you're probably in a small minority. Like English, Chinese is uninflected, so word endings don't change with grammatical function or degree of politeness. As in English, the basic Chinese word order is subject-verb-object (SVO).
Additionally, can Japanese communicate with Chinese? Kanji, the Chinese character system used in Japanese, is also more similar to this traditional style than to the simplified one, and that's one of the reasons Japanese people cannot really effectively communicate via writing in China – when Chinese was simplified, it did not occur in Japan, so the characters diverged
Consequently, can Japanese learn Chinese easily?
Definitely Japanese first, and then Chinese. Because Japanese is actually easier. Yes, its grammar is more difficult than Chinese grammar, but still way easier than English. It's also easier in terms of difficulty to pronounce sounds.
Can Japanese understand Mandarin?
Japanese don't understand spoken Mandarin, in general. There are some Japanese words that originated from Chinese, but only part of these words have pronunciation originated from Chinese. For the latter part, the pronunciation is usually close to Ancient Chinese, not to Mandarin.
