Some news/links for this morning:

-An Englilsh school in Yamanashi has run an employment ad for a new teacher at their school. The requirements:
“blonde hair blue or green eyes and brightly character“.

-The New York Times has a feature on the CLAMP manga authors. [Link via Dark Diamond Network]

-Japanese police have raided four locations connected to an employment company believed to have dispatched workers to transfer manufacturing technologies to North Korea.

-Are Japanese companies intentionally producing low-quality TV programs? Judging from just about every dramas I see on TV, I’d have to say yes…

-U2 frontman Bono thinks Shinzo Abe is “cool.”

-Expedia Inc, the world’s largest online travel company, has launched a Japanese language version of its service at Expedia.co.jp!

-Russian 18-year-old Wakanoho has become the youngest-ever foreigner to be promoted to sumo’s juryo division.

-Hokkaido is afraid that a trade deal with Australia will lead to agricultural losses.

-A weird foreigner with long hair talks about figures on episode 8 of Tokyo Eye.

-What Japan Thinks has translated the Top 100 goo searches of 2006. Everybody loves 2-channel!

-Edible squid-flavored postcards!

-This is what happens to foreigners who leech images from Japanese sites [they are given a Takeshima propaganda version of the original image].

-Japanese researchers have created an ultradense carbon nanotube. Neat.

Afternoon update:

-Yet another junior high school student suicide. No word yet on whether she had been bullied.

-The Yankees have 2 Japanese players now? Well, the Red Sox can match that.

-Japan’s Prince Akishino, the father of Japan’s recently born male heir, turned 41 today.

-JASRAC, the copyright enforcement association for Japan’s music industry, has had a man arrested for distributing ring tones on his website.

-The Yomiuri Shinbun has an article on the reluctance of schools to suspend bullies.

-Rooting out Japan’s woes, an editorial from the IHT.

-You thought the students in your English class sucked? Check out Lindsay Lohan’s writing abilities.