Gateway is bullish on Japan, especially on the smaller businesses it is targeting, and the computer maker is counting on a perhaps unlikely character to help make the sale: a mouthless, bespectacled, befuddled -- yet likable -- dweeb named Dilbert.

Creator Scott Adam's long-suffering poster boy for the corporate drone is the star of one of the most popular U.S. comics, and Gateway Japan, the 600-employee subsidiary its U.S. parent launched five years ago, has obtained exclusive rights to use the strip's characters in its marketing.

The strip is cynical while managing a light touch. Bosses are stupid, lazy and/or power mad, and underlings' portrayals are not necessarily much more charitable. Yet the stylistically drawn characters are cute enough for coffee mugs.

The humor is often sardonic and ironic. Example: In one recent strip, Dilbert sits with other employees around a conference table before the boss, who says, "We have the best employees in the world." Frame two -- "Not counting those of you who refuse to work here because the pay is so low." Frame three -- Boss' thought bubble: "Improve morale . . . Done."

Not Adams' best effort, perhaps, but it gives an idea the grim absurdities of the workplace that the strip is all about. Will this brand of humor carry over to a people not known for their appreciation of irony?

Gateway Japan marketing director Roger Yoder suggests it is no great stretch.

"I think many Japanese are very frustrated and cynical like Dilbert," he said at a marketing strategy presentation last week. "Often because they can't get proper IT support."

Gateway believes that this selling point -- support -- is key to increasing its share of the business market, which accounts for 40 percent of its sales, according to Kiyoshi Sako, senior manager of business sales. The firm wants to see that portion go to 50 percent this year.

Gateway sees an unserved and growing market in Japan's smaller businesses, especially the so-called SOHO -- small office and home office -- sector.

"The economy is showing signs of recovery, based not on the 'zaibatsu' of old," Yo-der said, "but on smaller, more innovative businesses."

SOHO businesses make up 5 to 10 percent of the market, he said, and it's the fastest-growing sector.

"These are often the most healthy and innovative businesses, made up of 'new thinkers.' They are also not being well served by the major computer makers."

Gateway aims to exploit this support gap, and that's where Dilbert comes in. "Dilbert is a mainstream office worker, unsure and afraid of new technology and how to maintain it," Yoder said. "He is cynical and satirical about this technology that is supposed to make life easier but is making it more difficult."

While it may be possible to portray Dilbert this way, it should be noted that this characterization belies his original conception. The official Dilbert Web site describes the character as someone who "loves technology for the sake of technology. In fact, he loves technology more than people."

Yoder explains that an in-house copywriter will cater the characterizations to local tastes. But that doesn't mean Gateway marketers will be able to portray the personalities any way they like.

"Everything goes before Scott Adams for final approval," he said.

Still, given the listlessness and uncertainty pervading the Japanese workplace, Gateway may be onto something in choosing Dilbert.

People frequently ask Adams why Dilbert's necktie is always curiously curled up in front of him, and his response reveals the empathy, as well as the gleeful defiance, that is the strip's heart: "It's either a metaphor for Dilbert's inability to control his environment," Adams says, "or he's just glad to see you."