I’m basing that on my Chinese coworker, who travels to Japan on business but doesn’t speak the language. Of course she can’t read hiragana or katakana, but she says she gets the gist of the Kanji.
I doubt she could read a novel, but she’s not illiterate when she’s there like I am.
(There’s little point to throwing Kanji at me, BTW - when I lived there I was young and more interested in looking for a good time than learning the language, unfortunately.)