[Laine]

From what I remember learning about this, the Japanese initially adapted the Chinese writing system. Hiragana was later developed by court women during the Heian Period in Japan. Before then, Chinese kanji was used. Japanese pronounciation is different, though, obviously.

I've heard that Japanese pronounciation is based off classical Korean, which supports the idea that the first Japanese came from Korea. There's some controversy about that, though.

Basically, if you know already know kanji through learning Chinese, you will understand the meaning (but not pronounciation) of Japanese words that are written in kanji