Does life in the office inspire you to flights of poetic inspiration? Are you a secret Keats of the computer, a Byron of the BlackBerry? If not, you may be missing out.

In Japan, a yearly corporate poem-writing competition is showing how art can pierce every salary earner’s heart.

The Salaryman Senryu Contest (senryu is a form of short poetry) is in its 20th year. It is run by Dai-ichi Life, an insurance company, which picks 100 finalists from the 23,000 submissions and invites the (Japanese-speaking) public to vote for their favourites on its website.

The ten most popular senryu will be announced in May, but hosts of daffodils it ain’t. Office politics and family life have been mainstays, while dieting and technofear are recent sources of inspiration.

The early entries reveal how today’s Japanese office worker feels trapped in quiet desperation: “The only warmth/ In my life/ Is the heated toilet seat.”

Home is no better, says this lament: “Dad, please/ A ride, save a seat/ Be in charge of the camera/ And take out the trash.”

Compared with this, the efforts of our home-grown miserablist, Philip “Why should I let the toad work squat on my life?” Larkin look like a walk in the park.

This year’s submissions show a new trend — one which Western workers might care to note. Many salarymen have written about finding themselves misfits in their own firms amid increased competition, while years of corporate devotion have left them isolated from their families and communities.

Sound familiar? So might these lines about having to keep up with new technology: “Got it/ But the features have already/ Been upgraded/ To the next generation.”

Still, it’s not all techno-doom and gloom. One entrant considers his GPS his sole source of solace: “Only my navigation system/ Says ‘Well done’/ And recognises my services”.

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