Japanese is no example. Actually you can refer to Wikipedia and you'll find Japanese and Chinese are totally different languages. Japanese "leveraged" some Chinese characters while building the writing system. There's really not a "next step" here.

As a Chinese, I've never had difficulty learning to recognize characters when I was a kid. Also they are not random stroke combinations, there's always logic inside and you get that easily after your Chinese reach a certain level. Just like when you see hydro- in Eng, you know it has something with water. Chinese may be difficult as a second language but I cannot find data to support it also difficult as a first language from personal experience. I began to read novels before 10yo anyway.