From Salon's review of MoaG:

Worse yet, the trailers I saw in the months before the picture opened didn't even mention the actresses' names, ostensibly because they're not big stars in America. Apparently, all the public has to know is that the movie stars "real" Asian actresses and thus must be suitably authentic -- why even bother with names?
... "Memoirs of a Geisha" has been marketed as if the movie itself had invented these stars, pulling them out of thin air, when in reality Yeoh and Gong have been starring in Asian pictures for nearly 20 years.

Wait, wait, wait. I thought the justification for using non-Japanese folks to fill the (specifically) Japanese roles was because there weren't enough big Japanese stars to make the movie otherwise. But now they've decided that the stars they did use aren't big enough either? Way to ensure that as many people as possible are insulted by all this! Sheesh.