Are kanji and Chinese characters the same?

Kanji are Chinese characters that came to Japan around the 5th century, so many look and mean the same. Three things differ: Japan simplified some shapes in its own way, kanji have Japanese readings, and some words drifted in meaning.

Shapes

After World War II, Japan introduced simplified forms (shinjitai) for some characters. Mainland China simplified many more, in different ways, in the 1950s and 60s. Taiwan and Hong Kong kept traditional forms.

Meaning	Japanese	Simplified Chinese	Traditional Chinese
learn	学	学	學
country	国	国	國
electricity	電	电	電
car	車	车	車

Many kanji sit closer to traditional Chinese than to simplified.

Readings

Each kanji usually has an on’yomi, borrowed from an old Chinese pronunciation, and a kun’yomi, a native Japanese word. 山 is read san in 富士山 and yama on its own. Chinese has one standard reading per character, shān here. See on’yomi vs kun’yomi.

Meanings that drifted

Word	Japanese	Chinese
手紙	letter	toilet paper
勉強	to study	to do reluctantly
大丈夫	all right	a real man (literary)

Is kanji harder than Chinese?

Different, not simply harder. Japanese uses fewer characters in daily life (the official jōyō list has 2,136) but more readings per character, plus two kana scripts.

For learners

If you already know Chinese, focus on readings and the meaning changes. If you don’t, learn shape and meaning first. Kanji Mnemonics (my app) gives each kanji one keyword, one story and one picture, from N5 to N1, with readings and example words. Its interface is English, French, German, Portuguese or Spanish.

Related: how many kanji you need and the Kanji Mnemonics guides.