killer kanji

Deterrents come in many shapes and forms. I've been making an effort to learn the Japanese language, nihongo. I've been sourcing the details from various references. Nothing has been more discouraging than the opinion of one brief exchange:

I was asking what a romanji word on my mobile phone means. After a tiny understanding of what the word could be interpreted as; I then heard that the language, in particular kanji, is difficult even for Japanese people!

That came as somewhat of a shock to me. How can Japanese people find their own language (one of them anyway) difficult? More to the point: why would a nation put up with a language that so many of its own people find very difficult to just read the newspaper?