This paper is dedicated to exploring the positive and negative transfer effects of Chinese-Japanese homographs on Mandarin-Japanese learners. The homographic words used in the study were selected from Practical Audio-Visual Chinese (Volume 5). A total of 115 Mandarin-Japanese learners were recruited and divided into five groups based on their Mandarin study periods. We then applied the Univariate Analysis of Variance (UNIANOVA) to analyze the collected data. The results showed that when the homographs have more meanings in Mandarin than those in corresponding Japanese, the correct rate was higher, and vice versa. Additionally, the learners who had studied Mandarin for more than three years or who had stayed in the target language country (Taiwan) for a similar period of time were able to identify the homographs better