Why are Chinese and Japanese characters so similar?

by Wat_am_3y3

So I’ve been going down the path of learning traditional Chinese, however I started learning the history of the language before I actually started learning the language it’s self. I know a bit about the traditional/simplified split, but not a whole lot about the connections between Japanese and Chinese. Now that I’m sitting here in a Tokyo bar, my head hurts from all of the characters I know but have different pronunciations! Can anyone help me with a time line? Thank you!

gynnis-scholasticus

You might be interested in some earlier answers on this, like this by u/Muskwatch, this by u/shakespeare-gurl, this by u/NientedeNada, and this by u/aonoreishou