For example: 漢字 from both 日本語 (JP) and 中文 (ZH) are derivative from semantic concepts based on what they saw around them (when both languages were first created), kind of like this:
There's more examples of it I can come up with such as the following:
Also, both languages allow this writing orientation (R-L vertical):
I mean, they even have words that are "swapable" (mainly how characters are positioned but retain the same definition) as shown:
The thing is, both languages are logographic which allows for this form of conceptualization regarding vocabulary based on "shape":
That is in contrast with languages that use alphabets (as those are based on sound) while 日本語 (JP) and 中文 (ZH) are "pictorial" if that makes sense, meaning each character conveys a word or concept rather than a single letter that has no inherent definition.
Yes. They kind of still are, because the Roman, Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek, Armenian, Georgian, and Hebrew scripts ultimately derive from Egyptian hieroglyphics, and hieroglyphics are even more pictorial than Chinese characters.
(Brahmic, Tibetan, and traditional Mongolian scripts also go back to Egyptian, but they aren't western).