primary school

01:39 Sep 2, 2019 

Thank you for the comment.
Yes, it is "shougakko." I would like to use "elementary school."
Thank you!

14:00 Aug 30, 2019 

My first response would be I think it’s best to use the local (English) terminology for this case. Can you tell us where this paper is being published/presented? Presumably to some sort of group of academics or educational policy makers...in which case, I would assume the audience understands that different educational systems in different countries use different terminology, and perhaps appreciate some of the practical differences between them, and so using the whichever the local terminology happens to be (primary/elementary school)shouldn’t cause any confusion.

You mention this is a Japanese to English translation, so was the study carried out in Japan? I think a lot of the education system is modelled on the US, and at least in the city I was living in, shougakko would be translated as “elementary school” in city hall publications, etc, so I would take that as the more or less officially accepted English term for the Japanese system.

I would only use “primary school” if the country where the study was actually performed used that term (I.e. the UK, Australia, I believe parts of Canada, etc.)