9 when the question relates to the next 10 years

Ten seven, not one more. This is the number of syllables in which each author of "senryu", a form of Japanese poetry, must submit to speak. Many of "salarymen" Japanese chose this mode of expression to give often satirical light, always with humour, their situation at work, relations with their superiors and their subordinates. Some of them, haunted by restructuring or pensions, also choose the channel where the games of words often turn a serious subject in derision. The phenomenon is far from being isolated as a competition is organized every year since 1987 by the Dai Ichi Seimei life insurance company. Autumn on a year, it is to find a winner among 750,000 contenders. The best 200 poems are published in a book that year scrambles among the bestsellers.

The senryus are quite taken seriously because they are a literary full derived form of haikus, the Japanese traditional poems are also structured in 17 syllables. Unlike the latter, which must contain a word specifying a season, the senryu is a free text. The wire yet very short texts eventually a true picture of the Japanese professional life. The "salaryman", often caricatured for his total dedication to the business, appears in a different light. Its inability to take leave fear not to regain his job to return is not necessarily experienced as well as it does appear. The employee draws against the background of these poems appears as a character not necessarily happy, at least forced to many concessions.

Well that difficult to translate, the senryus express all this ill be quite widespread. The company is in full restructuring. "My head told me range your business, it was he who arranged his own", to discuss the layoffs in the company. "Do it, do it really, I was constantly screaming my head." In fact, it was done."K", another: "is there". "What is important ultimately do I need", way of saying that his superior spends his time to the representation and is not very effective in the operation of the service. "Why do you work not as quickly when you measure your SMS", wrote another. Often anonymous, these worms do miss not their target. About pensions: "These are mostly those who did not need who decide the retreats of the other." About government campaigns "warm biz-cool biz" to guide employees in their clothing choices to save electricity, one of them wrote: "should I wear clothes"warm biz"but my portfolio is always"cool biz"", play on words explaining that wages in the ten years of recession have been highly compressed. These poems, from misrepresenting the reality of "salarymen" are a faithful reflection of reality.

Not less than 75 of employees reported that they are indifferent or have a negative perception of their jobs, according to a study of the Nomura Research Institute, conducted in October 2005 on the Internet with 1,000 employees of companies listed and twenty to forty years old. Nearly one in two (42.5 exactly) believes have deadlocked on the professional level over the past three years. Paradoxically, they are only 38.7 to declare an opposite opinion. This feeling of stagnation is particularly strong in the 30s (49 for males and 47.5 in women).

Finish the total dedication

Lifetime employment is no longer in morals companies, it is not more in the minds of employees. Only 17.9 of those interviewed believe complete their professional lives in the same company. The proportion collapses to 9.9 when the question relates to the next 10 years. The old clichés of total dedication to the work disappear with the question of motivation. Some 29 of the interviewees believe that their goal is to have a well paid job while 21.8 choose a position for the new skills that it will develop.

This fairly generalized wave to the soul arrives at a time when the Japanese economy is in full recovery, where companies are investing and hiring. They should, according to the latest scores, welcome in their ranks 20 young graduates more than in previous years. The Mitsubishi UFJ Bank alone, provides recruiting 2,000 new graduates next year, the triple of its original purpose. This movement is accompanied by the first five years of an increase in starting salaries, for the first job. Of course is not perfect, especially on the precarious jobs. A study of the Ministry of labour, health and Welfare reported that in 2004, 2.13 million jobs among young people belonged to this category. The majority of them still with their parents and helped financially.

Even if many hope, with recovery, better days while fearing for their pensions and health care system, some facts of society in this changing Japan did not escape the sagacity of the authors of senryus. Family: "I want my wife to be equipped with a silence as for phones touch", or exaggerations to domestic animals "ten thousand yen to style my dog, and only one thousand for me", are part of the favorite subjects. After the world of work, the Japanese poem in seventeen syllables seems to broaden its scope and become a true mirror of society.