Як зазначають у повідомленні, «атака триває щонайменше три години»
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WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris is set to unveil plans for a federal ban on food and grocery “price gouging” and assistance of up to $25,000 in down payment support for first-time homeowners – populist proposals the vice president has embraced since becoming the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

Harris is scheduled to outline her proposals Friday, in her first speech on the economy focusing on dealing with rising grocery and housing prices – key concerns for voters. She is set to speak in front of supporters at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, a battleground state that she and former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, are vying to win in the November presidential election.

“In her first 100 days, Vice President Harris will work to enact a plan to bring down Americans’ grocery costs and keep inflation in check,” her campaign said in a memo to reporters Wednesday.

Harris aims to ensure “big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits,” her campaign said, and will specifically call out the “highly consolidated” meat processing industry. “The lack of competition gives these middlemen the power to drive down earnings for farmers while driving up prices for consumers.”

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Trump called Harris’ proposal “communist price controls.”

“They don’t work, they actually have the exact opposite impact and effect,” he said. But it leads to food shortages, rationing, hunger, dramatically more inflation.”

In the U.S., the Federal Reserve sets interest rates independently, and presidential policies do not have much influence on lowering prices, at least in the short term.

“It is highly unlikely that any single policy introduced by a president could have a significant enough impact to bring inflation down from its current level to the Federal Reserve’s long-term target for the economy, which is 2%,” said Andrew Lautz, associate director for the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Economic Policy Program.

Trump has said he will fight rising prices by boosting oil and gas production. While increasing energy supply could have a downward pressure on prices, and in turn on inflation, it won’t happen quickly, Lautz told VOA.

Lower inflation

While Americans are still feeling the pain, last month U.S. year-over-year inflation dipped under 3% for the first time since March 2021. Unemployment remains low, retail sales figures are upbeat, and most economists no longer warn of recession.

Still the overall health of the economy remains a key concern for voters, and a point of attack on the campaign trail.

“The only thing Kamala Harris can deliver is horrific inflation, massive crime and the death of the American dream,” Trump said.

Both candidates have also promised to slash federal taxes on tips received by workers in the service and hospitality industry.

Critics say that proposal won’t help fast food servers or other low-income workers who don’t get tips and is vulnerable to abuse.

“How can we be sure that it’s deserving working people, as opposed to opening the door to a whole bunch of other people who might treat their bonuses and performance fees like tips and exempt themselves?” said Steven Rosenthal, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center.

Such proposals are common during presidential campaigns, Rosenthal said. “We often see a race to the bottom, with the candidates trying to outbid themselves for how many tax cuts they can promise.”

If enacted, those promises will be costly at a time when the country needs to seriously think about fiscal responsibility and deficit reduction, said Lautz.

“We are at nearly $28 trillion in federal debt held by the public,” he said. “The Congressional Budget Office estimates that’s going to increase by another $20 trillion or so over the next decade.”

Trump previously held a commanding lead among voters on key economic issues, with various polls showing Americans think they will be better off financially under Trump than President Joe Biden.

However, a survey conducted for the Financial Times and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business published this week found that 41% trust Trump to be better at handling the economy, while 42% believe Harris would be better – a figure up seven points from Biden’s numbers in July. 
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Washington — Sun Lijun, a 42-year-old semiconductor engineer, says worries about the quality of air and living, childhood education and the overall economic trajectory in China are some of the reasons he and his wife first started talking about moving to Japan almost a decade ago.

In 2021, they did just that, leaving their life in China behind and relocating with their two children to Okinawa.

Moving to Japan on a business management visa was a first step to “start over and then lead another lifestyle,” he told VOA.

Largest pool of residents

Sun is not alone. He is one of hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals who have relocated to Japan, where they are now the largest group of immigrants.

According to data from the Japanese Immigration Service Agency, at the end of last year, 821,838 Chinese nationals were living in Japan, a 13% increase from 2022. Trends of Chinese immigration follow a broader increase in the number of foreigners relocating to Japan, which reached a record high of 3,410,992 people in 2023.

With an aging population and widespread labor shortages, Japan has been rolling out immigration reforms in a bid to attract more foreign nationals to the country.

Beginning in 2019, the Japanese government pushed to loosen qualifications that previously inhibited foreigners from establishing residence in the country. Now, those applying for business management visas and residency can bypass the country’s previously strict standards for special skills, education and residence qualifications.

Chinese demand

The changes in Japanese immigration policy have come with consequences. In the case of Chinese nationals, new residents have driven up housing prices and the rate of real estate development across the country.

Daniel Cheng, president of Wan Guo Jin Liang Company, told VOA that real estate developers in Tokyo often use Chinese sales teams, and that many Chinese-owned real estate companies focus on business with Chinese living in Japan or other places overseas.

Tokyo has attracted many middle-class and wealthy Chinese immigrants, and that has pushed up the average price of newly built central city apartments by nearly 40% from 2022, to around $780,000, according to a report issued by the Tokyo-based Real Estate Economic Institute. That’s much higher than the average price in the capital’s greater metropolitan area, which is about $550,000 for an apartment.

Chin JouSen’s real estate agency, Yuzawa, focuses on the Chinese market. He said that when looking at buying property in Japan, China’s wealthy mainly focus on preserving the value of their investment, whereas middle-class families are looking for a variety of choices that allow them to minimize the cost of living.

Cheng said that Japan’s stable political environment, good medical and social insurance, and property ownership rights are a key draw for Chinese. In China, by contrast, individuals may not own land.

Water Lee, a consultant with InterDots, a company that provides immigration services to people from Hong Kong, told VOA that Hong Kongers are also among those relocating to Japan — given the changes in the political environment in the port city in recent years.

Integration into Japan

Despite the impact of the surge of new foreign residents, the rising cost of housing in Japan’s capital, and the geopolitical rivalry between Tokyo and Beijing, Chinese migrants say public sentiment in Japan toward immigrants is positive.

Chin JouSen recently founded his real estate business in Japan. He said that integrating into Japanese society is the most important thing an immigrant can do. And based on his experience, the Japanese are friendly and accepting, Chin said.

However, while most Japanese people are friendly to foreigners, Tokyo-based aromatherapy business owner Michelle Takahashi, who is originally from Taiwan, told VOA that immigrants can sometimes feel subtle differences in how they are treated.

“Japanese thinking on service work can sometimes make foreigners feel like they are being treated specially or differently. This can be a challenge for foreigners who don’t speak Japanese,” she said.

The Japanese government provides new immigrants with specialists to help them adapt to the new language and culture.

Kazuhiko Isozaki founded Beru Corporation in 2017. The company invests in unused, vacant houses, renovates them and rents them out to disadvantaged groups at low prices. He fully welcomed the influx of foreign capital, especially Chinese capital, into Japan.

“The rise in land and housing prices has a positive impact on the economy, and foreign capital helps to drive up land prices,” he said.

“As Japan’s population continues to decline and incomes within the country fall, it makes sense from an economic perspective to more effectively assist overseas capital and people in entering Japan.”

He said he hopes to engage in business helping foreigners buy real estate in Japan in the future, mainly through education and support services, to reduce the barriers for foreigners to buy houses in Japan.

A slower, happier life

As for Sun and his family, they have settled in Okinawa, Japan’s sparsely populated island south of the main island. Sun says he enjoys the climate, slower pace of life and the internationalism he has found there.

For a while, Sun operated a coin laundry before transitioning to property management. His two daughters are learning Japanese in school.

“After immigrating to Japan, my quality of life and overall happiness of my family increased significantly,” Sun said.

VOA’s Katherine Michaelson contributed to this report.
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