Is it because of the existence of 漢字 (known as Kanji in JP while it's Hanzi in ZH) in both despite being different languages even though they're unrelated? However, some words & nouns outright look the same in writing (警察、死亡、軍人、明治維新、仲見世商店街、歌舞伎町) thus making it somewhat mutually readable although they don't inherit the same pronunciation. Does the same form of confusion also happen with languages with the same alphabets (English > French & Russian & Ukrainian for instance...)?