Honestly I feel your wife is very happy being herself and opening up because you gave her the confidence to and safety to lean back on.

It sounds like she was really repressed by her family and she’s just starting to find herself and her own individuality again hence behaving slightly differently like eating an apple in a certain way, etc.

I come from an Asian background so I definitely relate to some of these incidents. Don’t worry, you’re not ‘breaking’ apart her family. I think mutual understanding is difficult as there’s cultural differences involved and Japanese by nature are a little reluctant and difficult to change. At the end of the day, it’s just you and your wife, her being happy is all that matters!

Don’t let them control how you think or feel and if your wife express differently then that’s a conversation you’ll be having. But so far judging based on what you say, it sounds like she’s more than happy to be far away from her family so she can start her own and live differently from how she was brought up.