Size - Dissimilar.: China is 25 times larger than Japan.Population - Dissimilar.: China has over 10 times the population of Japan.Geography - Dissimilar.: China is a mainland state while Japan is an archipelago.Spoken language - Dissimilar.: Japanese is an atonal language with roughly 15 gradations of politeness for different situations, while Mandarin, the official state language of China, is a tonal language with no tense or gender. Speakers of Japanese typically attempt to say as little as possible as politely as possible while speakers of Mandarin typically attempt to say as much as possible in as few words as possible.Written language - Similar: Both dominantly use variants of a historical Chinese writing system, with Japan having adopted it in the 4th or 5th Century AD. Readers of Chinese and Japanese are typically able to puzzle some meaning out of the other language, but the written languages have diverged substantially, especially with 20th Century China's simplification of hanji. And of course they are pronounced completely differently.Religion - Dissimilar.: Japan practices Buddhism, Shinto and Christianity. China officially had no religion for a long time, but is more Buddhist than anything else. The Chinese state endorses Confucianism, which is more a historical philosophy than a religion.Ethnicity - Similar: China is 91.5% ethnically Han with 55 minorities. Japan is 98.5% Japanese with a smattering of Korean, Chinese and other. Genetically, Han and Japanese are identical.Politics - Dissimilar.: China is a centrally managed post-Communist state that is not democratic. Japan is a parliamentary democracy with a relatively powerless hereditary monarchy similar to England.GDP per capita - Dissimilar: China has a 2015 GDP per capita of $8,154 USD while Japan's is over four times larger at $33,223 USD.
