It's not either or, they are used together. Once you become even an intermediate learner of the language lack of kanji actually makes it more difficult to read text that is just in kana. Japanese and Chinese can also present the interesting problem for a learner of perfectly understanding what a written sentence means without having the ability to actually say it out loud.
Also excluding names, there are less than two thousand kanji in modern Japanese. Still a lot but not some insurmountable task.
>Also excluding names, there are less than two thousand kanji in modern Japanese. Still a lot but not some insurmountable task.
The problem with these kanji is that each one has several possible pronunciations/sounds. That, and writing without spaces, increases the difficulty to the maximum. You cannot read a word without previously knowing it, only sightly guess if you have a high level of knowledge and try good luck.
Japanese people can not read old texts in their own language due this.
Also excluding names, there are less than two thousand kanji in modern Japanese. Still a lot but not some insurmountable task.