It started with a simple article submitted to Associated Press by Hiroko Tabuchi. Not a big scoop, just a feature about a free downloadable mobile application which can discreetly tell a violator to back off without causing a fuss or disturbance… or else. The story was not only picked up by EVERY major news source from every part of the globe, it was distorted and rewritten to the point of announcing a “new initiative” by Japan to fight an “epidemic” of gropers in the country. Huh?! Watching the story unfold and reappearing in a different form every half hour during the day, blognation Japan decided to take a look at this “Japanese phenomenon” (which of course NO ONE knows about over here) to learn what the REAL scoop was.