I think it's better to study the simplified form, since it won't take longer time, and it has been authorized to use in global (around the world) by International United Nations with the purpose of everybody in the world can study Chinese easier & faster to prepare the global business, technology, educational and trade in the world.

So, if you intend to study Chinese instantly, you can use this system.

However, if you prefer to know the source of each characters, or arts and calligraphy purpose, you should study the traditional characters, since they are original and more complicated.

Regarding the relationship with Japanese kanji, actually Japanese kanji (漢字) is taken from Hanzi (汉字), so they exactly have the similar meanings, Japanese kanji take the character based on Chinese traditional ones. Though, Japan also has some special kanji characters which created by themselves. And some Japanese kanji have been simplified from the traditional chinese characters.

Currently I'm studying simplified Chinese, so I can just understand a few traditional characters. It's not so easy to memorize such a lot of characters in a very short period. But I will keep studying, though I'm so lazy, hehehe

现在我正学习汉语。
但是我很少用汉语讲话，所以，很慢会进步。
还有，我也常常觉得很懒惰啊~
应该多多努力啦，我们该加油!!

请您们教我讲话吧
谢谢!!