A Cultural Divide?

Is the following account a case of East-West cultural divide or just the art of indirect speech?

According to T.R. Reid, U.S.- Japanese relations were soured for years during the Nixon administration after Richard Nixon (pictured) asked Prime Minister Sato Eisaku to open Japan's rice market to American imports.

The Japanese Prime Minister reportedly hemmed and hawed for a moment, and then said "Zensho itashimasu."

A translator told Nixon exactly what the words meant: "I will respectfully give your proposal positive consideration in the future."

The elated Nixon went back home and declared victory on the rice issue.

Sato, meanwhile, assured everybody in Japan that he had said "no". And indeed, any Japanese would know that "I will give your proposal positive consideration in the future" is the same thing as "no"

Anyway, as a Japanese diplomat pointed out later, Japan did eventually give Nixon's proposal positive consideration.

The rice market was opened to imports a mere 28 years after the conversation - just a few months' before Nixon's death.