:00:00. > :00:00.properties, blocked roads and caused the cancellation of flights.
:00:00. > :00:14.Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:15. > :00:20.The US government drops its court order for Apple to unlock an iPhone
:00:21. > :00:26.used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. And one Japanese company
:00:27. > :00:35.takes a bite out of gender inequality.
:00:36. > :00:41.Hello and welcome to Asia Business Report, I'm Sharanjit Leyl. The FBI
:00:42. > :00:45.has said it no longer needs the help of Apple to unlock the iPhone that
:00:46. > :00:51.was used by the San Bernardino terrorists. Investigators had taken
:00:52. > :00:56.Apple to court in order to force it to weaken the device's security so
:00:57. > :01:02.they too could be accessed. Our technology correspondent David Lee
:01:03. > :01:03.has the latest. -- data could be accessed.
:01:04. > :01:09.Last week the FBI said an outside party had approached them with a way
:01:10. > :01:14.to break into the phone without the need for Apple. It now appears that
:01:15. > :01:18.method has worked. So a court case that had the US technology industry
:01:19. > :01:23.united against the FBI has, for the time being, gone away. Now this
:01:24. > :01:27.debate moves into more uncertain times. The US government has
:01:28. > :01:32.knowledge of a security vulnerability that in theory weakens
:01:33. > :01:36.Apple devices across the world. To protect its reputation, Apple will
:01:37. > :01:38.rush to find and fix that floor and assuming it can do that, this row
:01:39. > :01:45.will go back to square one. Dave Lee with the latest. Some
:01:46. > :01:50.economic figures out of Japan this morning which show that consumers
:01:51. > :01:55.are spending a bit more compared to a year ago, but really not as much
:01:56. > :02:00.as expected. Household spending rose by just over 1% while retail sales
:02:01. > :02:03.were up 0.5% and the jobless rate came in at 3.3%.
:02:04. > :02:09.One of the ways Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been trying to
:02:10. > :02:12.jumpstart the Japanese economy is by encouraging corporate Japan to
:02:13. > :02:17.include more women in the managerial mix. While most firms are struggling
:02:18. > :02:25.to achieve that, there's one company making progress and it is Calbee. We
:02:26. > :02:31.put the spotlight on the snack manufacturer.
:02:32. > :02:38.With this catchy commercial of shrimp chips, Calbee became a
:02:39. > :02:47.household name in the 1960s. It may be an old fan but it's got new ideas
:02:48. > :02:51.-- firm. Meet the team behind the current bestseller. In most Japanese
:02:52. > :02:58.firms this team leader would be expected to work late. But she's a
:02:59. > :03:01.mother and she keeps her hours. TRANSLATION: I was surprised when
:03:02. > :03:05.they offered me the position, but we have many more female executives now
:03:06. > :03:13.so it's becoming the norm. This woman is Calbee's highest
:03:14. > :03:15.ranked female executive with 800 staff reporting to her. TRANSLATION:
:03:16. > :03:19.When I first got mail staff reporting to me it felt awkward to
:03:20. > :03:25.be their boss. I have two daughters so I can't be like the exec before
:03:26. > :03:32.me, but the chairman said its OK so I decided to give it a go. When this
:03:33. > :03:37.woman took the top job at Calbee in June, 2009, only 6% of managers were
:03:38. > :03:42.women. Five years on the number of female managers has more than
:03:43. > :03:48.tripled. The key is the top management decisions or policies
:03:49. > :03:54.that some top management at Japanese companies are still very hesitant.
:03:55. > :03:58.You've been a vocal advocate for diversity at your company, what do
:03:59. > :04:04.you hope to see from the rest of corporate Japan in the next 5-ten
:04:05. > :04:11.years? I expect them to promote is diversity. Any or some major
:04:12. > :04:18.Japanese companies, like Toyota and Nissan, such huge companies, they
:04:19. > :04:25.need to achieve this. If they reach a certain level, yes, most of the
:04:26. > :04:32.other companies may follow, yeah. Calbee is too small.
:04:33. > :04:38.At Toyota only 3% of managers are women. At Nissan it is slightly
:04:39. > :04:42.higher at 8%. Most of corporate Japan is struggling to meet the
:04:43. > :04:49.government's original target of increasing the proportion of female
:04:50. > :04:55.managers to 13% by 2020, so December last year the target was cut by
:04:56. > :05:00.half. For working mothers at Calbee it is
:05:01. > :05:05.time to rush back to pick up their children, something most men don't
:05:06. > :05:08.have to worry about. The winning formula at Calbee is the combination
:05:09. > :05:14.of forwardthinking leadership coupled with the right talent. But
:05:15. > :05:15.what will it take for the rest of corporate Japan to revamp their
:05:16. > :05:28.recipe for success? Our Series continues tomorrow. We
:05:29. > :05:30.will look at the government efforts to try to boost tourism as an engine
:05:31. > :05:39.of economic growth. China's housing market has once
:05:40. > :05:44.again heated up. Prices for residential property in Shenzhen
:05:45. > :05:48.have increased nearly 60% over the past 12 months, while in Shanghai
:05:49. > :05:51.they are up about 21% and authorities in both cities have
:05:52. > :05:56.responded by raising the minimum deposit required for some buyers.
:05:57. > :06:03.Will be cooling measures have any effect? I asked the head of research
:06:04. > :06:05.in China for the real estate firm why prices have been rising despite
:06:06. > :06:12.the slowdown in the economy. In a study last year we saw the
:06:13. > :06:21.returning of the speculators coming into the market. Because prices went
:06:22. > :06:31.up too quickly it was a problem. Prices went up by even 20% or 50% in
:06:32. > :06:37.the past 12 months. New policies are needed. Will these policies have any
:06:38. > :06:41.affect? The immediate effect will be on the transaction volume, which
:06:42. > :06:46.will decline substantially by osmosis. On the plus side, I don't
:06:47. > :06:50.think it will have lots of impact... It is likely to remain
:06:51. > :06:56.stable in the coming months because there is still very strong demand.
:06:57. > :07:00.You mentioned the government needs to increase supply, so what are they
:07:01. > :07:03.doing to try to do this now and put more property available for people
:07:04. > :07:08.to buy? Why didn't they see this problem coming? It is a structural
:07:09. > :07:14.problem, it's very difficult to increase supply in a short period.
:07:15. > :07:20.What the Chinese government is doing is to increase supply of smaller
:07:21. > :07:22.units. For example the more projects they can build the more units they
:07:23. > :07:30.can have per square metre. While property is the focus of
:07:31. > :07:35.regulators in China, they are also tightening their grip on the
:07:36. > :07:38.insurance sector in a bid to shield it from recent stock volatility on
:07:39. > :07:42.domestic markets. The insurance industry holds a big chunk of
:07:43. > :07:45.investments and savings from millions of Chinese people, and our
:07:46. > :07:51.Asia business correspondent spoke with the group CEO of AIA, one
:07:52. > :07:56.China's biggest foreign insurers, she asked about the effect of the
:07:57. > :08:02.slowdown on his business. The slowing growth is the
:08:03. > :08:08.transitioning of the economy well documented from manufacturing,
:08:09. > :08:12.investment, to service, consumption, change of productivity factors...
:08:13. > :08:17.These are and this will be a transition that is a multi-year
:08:18. > :08:21.transition, it will take time to go into effect and in that transition
:08:22. > :08:26.growth will slow, this is all to be expected. We still expect growth
:08:27. > :08:29.around 6.5% going forward for the next five years. So we are still
:08:30. > :08:33.very encouraged by what is happening. But certainly growth
:08:34. > :08:38.slowing is no surprise to any of us, and moving from quantity to
:08:39. > :08:45.quality as the country is doing is very important at this stage. China
:08:46. > :08:49.has a basic insurance system, both life and pensions, but what kind of
:08:50. > :08:53.opportunities does it present for your business? It presents immense
:08:54. > :08:58.opportunity. I think if you look at the underlying drivers of our
:08:59. > :09:04.business there around demographics, they're around urbanisation, around
:09:05. > :09:08.saving rates, protection gaps, so this gap is growing significantly.
:09:09. > :09:13.Insurance has grown at when the 1% compound since 1992, so we've seen
:09:14. > :09:17.tremendous growth in the industry -- 21%. This gap demonstrates how much
:09:18. > :09:21.of an opportunity there is and as you say, both on the live site, the
:09:22. > :09:26.accident and health side, and the pensions side, the country needs the
:09:27. > :09:32.support both on the liability and asset side, which we can play a
:09:33. > :09:35.major role in -- life side. It's still a relatively protected market,
:09:36. > :09:41.does that make it difficult for you to come in? In some senses it does,
:09:42. > :09:45.we clearly are 100% owners of our business and therefore there is less
:09:46. > :09:53.of an issue. They need to open up more, open up to private as well as
:09:54. > :09:54.SOEs, open up to both local and international.
:09:55. > :10:01.Let's have a quick look at the markets now, we can look at Japan's
:10:02. > :10:05.Nikkei, it is currently lower. We have some of that Japanese economic
:10:06. > :10:09.data I told you about earlier. Investors shrugging that of. They
:10:10. > :10:14.are taking their cues from Wall Street, which saw a weaker close.
:10:15. > :10:18.Japan as well saw two days of gains reversing the two week high it hit
:10:19. > :10:22.just yesterday. The King at Australia, it is opening after a
:10:23. > :10:28.four-day long weekend, and it is also declining taking its cues from
:10:29. > :10:33.Wall Street -- looking at. We saw weaker economic data out of the US
:10:34. > :10:34.as well. That's it for this edition of Asia Business Report. Thanks for
:10:35. > :10:35.watching.