While here in sun-drenched Okinawa many people are less than delighted with the package, the deal seems to have had its intended effect on the Japanese-American relationship as a whole.

A Japanese Embassy spokesman, Koichi Haraguchi, termed the trade actions taken by Congress this week an "indirect reflection of the widening and deepening" Japanese-American relationship.

"Thinking about the future of the Japanese-American relationship, we have to rectify this situation."

But the plan also raises new questions about the Japanese-American relationship in the years ahead.

At the heart of the Japanese-American relationship have been efforts on myriad fronts to reduce the trade deficit, which has in fact fallen in recent years.

What Mr. Bush is seeking, as one White House official put it, is "broad, conceptual, forward-looking" talks about where the Japanese-American relationship is headed.

In any case, Japanese-American relationships had already significantly deteriorated since Japan's invasion of China beginning in the early 1930s, of which the United States strongly disapproved.

Instead, economically, financially and technologically, Japan has tried - and succeeded in - converting the Japanese-American relationship from one of Japanese dependence to one of mutual dependence.

The negotiations were particularly sensitive, marking what officials here called a turning point in the Japanese-American military relationship.

Mr. Reagan and Mr. Nakasone will be trying to calm the markets and contain the bitter political forces that could endanger the critically interdependent Japanese-American relationship.