In the process of establishing modern primary education system, both Japan and China have widely borrowed from the modern primary education system in Europe and America, and also absorbed many practical experiences and ideas of primary education in Europe and America. However, due to the differences in political, economic and cultural traditions, there are great differences in the development of modern primary education between the two countries.

As the leaders of the Meiji Restoration Government in Japan tried to transform Japan from a feudal society to a capitalist society through reform, their attitude towards change was more resolute. Since 1872, Japan has been changing its learning objects, from learning and copying the French school system, to adopting the American education system, and then to imitating Prussia's practice, in an attempt to find a school system suitable for the development of Japanese society in the process, and completed the popularization of primary compulsory education at the beginning of the 20th century.

In modern China, when the Qing government accepted the influence of western culture, it adopted the policy of "taking middle school as the body and western learning as the application". Therefore, influenced by modern western primary education, the original cultural tradition and political system were maintained, which led to the coexistence of various primary education institutions in modern China. With the introduction of western educational ideas and theories, the ideas of universal education and national education also influenced modern China. However, due to frequent wars and economic backwardness in modern China, compulsory primary education was not popularized before the founding of New China.