One interesting aspect of Japanese meishi (name-card) etiquette is that entertainers never give them out. It took me a while to figure out that one. Several interviews with musicians I thought had begun inauspiciously when I handed the artist my meishi only to receive nothing in return.

What am I, chopped liver? I thought in my paranoid way, until I understood that for celebrities, their face is their calling card. Meishi are for the hoi polloi.

So when I met famed New Age musician Kitaro for an interview the other day, I was surprised to be presented with his name card. It described him as a member of the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment, which is comprised of parliamentarians from around the world who are trying to foster international cooperation on global environmental issues.