No! Japanese isn't made like that!
Japanese people used to have the same language as the Chinese. They use the same words, but they pronounce them differently, just like Mandarin and Cantonese, they are the same written but differently spoken...
But the Japanese are an arrogant bunch and decides to make up their own written language... Therefore, they made up the phonetic characters. And used those to written ever since. Those characters represent a sound each and when combined together it forms the "sound" according to the way they used to pronounce Chinese words... And then, so that's it's easy for foreign people or themselves too, they translated those phonetic characters into Latin alphabet according to their sounds. And there comes Romanji (I think)... Now, they think that using some "Chinese Characters" with Phonetic characters in their writing is considered "high-class" , and in fact, the more Chinese characters the better... (arent' they stupid)... So, that's what I know about the Japanese language... AND THE CHINESE CAME FIRST!!! Oh well...
And btw, you can learn Chinese phonetically too. There is Ping Ying (Mandarin Alphabet translations) and I think there is a Cantonese Ping Ying too, but it's called something else. Acutally the whole name for Mandarin Alphabet translations is "Han Yu Ping Ying", "Han" meaning a famous dynasty we had long ago. But now, Han is used to represent Chinese. "Yu" Language, "Ping Ying" means phonetics. And I think you are wrong about Chinese being easier to read. Because the Ping Ying we use is not pronounced the same as the English alphabet. "You" would be pronounced differently in Ping Ying. But on the other hand, Japanese phonetics can be pronounced exactly as English and is much easier. There are sounds in the Chinese language that doesn't even exist in English.
And it depends on what "Chinese" you mean, like there is Mandarin, Cantonese, Puk Gin (Not sure if I translated that right) and lots others. I know Cantonese and Mandarin. They are not easy to learn.
I think both is basically the same hard, but Japanese may be easier.