An able author and teacher

Disabled author Hirotada Ototake, known for his book No One's Perfect, which became an instant bestseller in Japan, chats with schoolchildren after being appointed a full-time teacher at a Tokyo elementary school yesterday.

Mr Ototake was born in 1976 with tetra-amelia - a congenital condition that left him without limbs.

On his role as a teacher, he was quoted in earlier reports as saying: 'I want to accept the differences between each person, and work to make people become aware of their good qualities.'