[AmbeRz]

Yeah, they still exist, they're just entertainers lol.

Ah, I understand why people think they're prostitutes.

""Geisha girls" (pronounced "geesha"), also known as "panpan girls,"[5] were Japanese women who worked as prostitutes during the period of the Allied Occupation of Japan. They almost exclusively serviced American GIs stationed in the country. The term is a mispronunciation of the word geisha.[5][6]. The mispronunciation persists among some westerners.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that these women dressed in kimono and imitated the look of geisha. Americans unfamiliar with the culture of Japan did not know the difference between these costumed prostitutes and actual geisha.[5] Shortly after their arrival in 1945, occupying American GIs are said to have congregated on the Ginza and shouted in unison "We want geesha girls!" [7]

Eventually, the term "geisha girl" became a general word for any female Japanese prostitute or worker in the mizu shobai, and included bar hostesses and streetwalkers.[5]

Geisha girls are speculated by researchers to be largely responsible for the continuing misconception in the West that geisha are prostitutes."