News/Links for this morning:

-The LDP decided to readmit 11 of the 12 postal rebels who petitioned to rejoin the party. Takeo Hiranuma, who refused to attach a written pledge to accept the LDP’s conditions that include promising to support the privatization of Japan Post, was no allowed back in the party.

-Pink Tentacle writes about Dual-mode vehicles, Bus/Train hybrids that will make public transportation in the countryside a lot easier.

-Mainichi’s WaiWai explores Ageha, a monthly magazine made by cabaret club hostesses for a cabaret club hostess readership.

-Police searched the offices of a pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) yesterday in connection with a woman’s attempt to smuggle medical supplies into North Korea.

-The Party Pooper reveals why Korean slugger Lee Seung-yeop re-signed with the Yomiuri Giants to a four-year extension through 2010 instead of going to the Major Leagues: because he’s scared of the competition.

-Woman who cut off her newborn son’s private parts was sentenced to 5 years in prison yesterday. Despite the fact that she gave her son severe injuries that took seven months to heal and serious after-effects, the judge decided to reduce her sentence from 8 years to 5 years because of her unhappy childhood and the fact that she was regularly abused by her common-law husband.

-Space Daily reports on Japan’s spy satellites.

-Mari has translated the results of a poll showing actions by boyfriends that women hate. Is is so wrong to wash one’s face with a the wet towel at a restaurant?

-Kobe Shimbun photographer was busted for trying to take pictures up woman’s skirt at a pachinko parlor. Maybe he was taking pictures for a feature story on panchira?

-A View From Taiwan comments on the growing ties between Japan and Taiwan.

-Japanese couples love to shop for rings together, according to What Japan Thinks.

-Ohhhh snap! Asashoryu pulled out the Ketaguri (蹴手繰り), how dishonorable! See the video here!

Evening News update:

-The Economist has taken a look at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

-Pingmag explores the wacky world of Japanese pop-up books!

-The DPJ wants to make high school manditory. I can just see it now: high schools specially geared towards taking in the kids who would have never gone to high school in the first place and the unfortunate foreign ALT’s assigned to teach English there….

-ALSOK will soon be deploying security guard robots to shopping malls. It has not yet been determined how the robot will react to people crowding around it an taking pictures with their cell phones.

-Americans applying for long-term visas in Japan will have to submit their fingerprints to the FBI for a criminal record check. Uh oh…

-We only bring you the hardest-hitting news stories: A profile of Roy, Shinzo and Akie Abe’s dog.

-The naked dead body of an 18-year-old girl was discovered in a Nagasaki hotel room last night. Police are looking for the man who originally checked into the room.

-A dream come true for the hikikomori in the apartment next door: Japan’s first online 4-year university will be opening next year!

-An Osaka woman who wrote of a pure love story between a schoolgirl prostitute and a host club gigolo was awarded the grand prize in the first Japan Mobile Phone Novel Awards.

-The Education ministry has received 3 more suicide letters from anonymous writers claiming to be bullying victims.

-Kabukicho’s host clubs are working hard to clean up their image. The quote at the end of the article should truly win you over to their cause.