Eye Contact

When the husband said, "The Japanese do not make eye contact," the wife said, "Young people make eye contact when they are talking to each other."

In reality she did not intend to disagree with him but the way she spoke gave the impression that she did, which upset the husband.

Communication confusions between the Japanese people and English-speaking people will occur when the former refer to peripheral developments only, which gives the false impression that the underlining fact is no longer valid. 

If the wife spoke English she would say, "I know what you mean but I have seen young Japanese making eye contact when they talk to each other," which not only will report on her observation but also support her position that she beilves that eye contact is important.