Problems of Translation for Cross-Cultural Experimental Philosophy Masashi Kasaki 1 Received: 1 March 2017 / Revised: 28 June 2017 / Accepted: 6 July 2017 Ó ICPR 2017 Abstract In this paper, first, I briefly discuss various types of obstacles and diffi- culties for cross-cultural study and in particular failure of translational equivalence of linguistic stimuli and questions by referring to the literature in cultural psy- chology. Second, I summarize the extant cross-cultural studies of semantic judg- ments about reference and truth-value with regard to proper names, with a focus on Sytsma et al.’s (2015) study that examined the differences between English and Japanese. Lastly, I introduce and discuss the two recent studies of semantic judg- ments in Japanese that my colleagues and I conducted. These two studies suggest that the translation Sytsma et al. used failed to consider the linguistic features characteristic of Japanese and other East Asian languages, and thereby failed to ensure translational equivalence. Keywords Experimental philosophy Á Cross-cultural psychology Á Translational equivalence Á Reference Á Topic Cross-Cultural Studies in Experimental Philosophy Experimental philosophy, on its broadest definition, is ‘empirical work undertaken with the goal of contributing to a philosophical debate’ (Stich and Tobia 2016: p. 5). The definition of experimental philosophy is indeed very broad because experi- mental philosophy thus defined is not restricted to the institutionalized field of philosophy, and its history may be as old as philosophy itself (see Sytsma and Livengood 2015: pp. 3–5). Although it is certainly true that philosophers have long been using empirical methods in their philosophical research, an important feature & Masashi Kasaki kasaki@ilas.nagoya-u.ac.jp 1 Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan 123 J. Indian Counc. Philos. Res. DOI 10.1007/s40961-017-0119-5