In Japan, we learn the way of reading Chinese classics.  So, I think we are better at comprehensing classical Chinese than modern one.  I had thought classical Chinese and modern Chinese were similar thing, so I chose Chinese as my second major at the university.  It did not take too long to find out the idea was totally wrong...

Anyway, I think it is similar level how much English speakers can read newspapers written in another European languages and the Japanese and Chinese people can read each other's newspapers.  We just  share characters, like Europeans do alphabets.

Kara’s comment is interesting, and makes me wonder to what extent Chinese and Japanese speakers can read each other’s language. I’m afraid my questions my seem silly, but to what extent can someone from Hong Kong or Taiwan understand a newspaper in Japanese? What about someone from mainland China? What about vice versa?  I'm super curious :)

Simplified characters look easier to me than the complicated traditional script, but that's not the main reason I'm using them. 

If I learned Taiwan's language, I'd learn Taiwan's alphabet. I've chosen to learn the official language of mainland China. If simplified characters are what goes with it, I'll learn simplified characters.

For a Japanese native speaker, simplified Chinese characters are sometimes very confusing.

Unfortunately what we read is not necessary always on a computer system.  I often go to Asian super markets and try to read the packages.  I can guess Taiwanese products pretty well from the characters, but sometimes very tricky with Chinese products. 

The original purpose of simplifying the characters was supposedly to make them easier to learn and write. That said, I suspect the reason most learners are interested in them (if such is the case) would be due to the relatively large population of Mainland China, as compared to Hong Kong and Taiwan.

It seems to me that a computer program could easily convert back and forth, so unless we’re reading an ancient manuscript, does it even matter in the 21st century?

I’d love to know what your opinion is.