Vanessa I don't remember if it is for chinese,japanese or both,but I've read a bit about it,and it seems some signs can be used for letters or syllables,but they can use signs too for complete words...I think it can be very hard to learn to speak/write it well.
Chines have not letters the have kanjis. To read a newspaper, I heard, you need to know min 2000 kanjis.
Kanjis are build with radical and here is a online tool to find the kanji.
Japanese have two letters, Hiragana and Katagana. Hiragana is used for Japanese or Chinas origin and Katakana for foreign origin. The also use Kanjis.
Japanese gramma is not so complicated what makes it difficult are the different forms of possibilities
