OK, the silly version of this thread is over in the Jet Blast forum. I think we should wait and see if anything more sensible is revealed over this incident.
Whilst we are all very aware at the incredibly pathetic ability of many journalists to report events with accurate and non-sensationalist detail, it is also possible that this journalist has failed to grasp the details that were given to him or her and that in fact it may be a more serious incident than just an autopilot failure. I would hazard a guess that we are more likely talking about a multiple ADC failure.
I have no doubt that all my Japanese colleagues are more than capable of hand flying their a/c when necessary. However, should there be multiple failures of the ADC and the crew are getting conflicting information on their instruments and they can't rely on the autopilot and throw in a dark night or IMC conditions and it is indeed possible that this crew had enough problems that warranted an emergency call.
Of course, if the journalist has actually got the true jist of the incident then we can all go over to Jet Blast and have a giggle on the thread that exists there:
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=206924