A foreign name, no matter how close it is to an actual japanese name, it can only be written in katakana? Let’s say Tori for example. There’s a girl named Tori, and she’s a foreigner. If she comes to Japan, her name can never be written in kanji? Only if she was japanese?
Or if she was japanese, but had a name like Mary (メアリー usually), she would be perceived like a foreigner, since her name can’t be written in another way? She can even be named with katakana in Japan?
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This is so fun to talk about isn’t it?
If your name was not given to you in kanji then no, it should not be written in kanji.
There are plenty of Japanese people these days without kanji names. They are just written in hiragana, sometimes katakana. They would not just decide to write it in kanji because their name for all intents and purposes has no kanji.
It is the same for foreigners.
Correct.
I believe people who marry in can sometimes take on a Japanese name with kanji, but Ive only heard of that second-hand.
I’m no expert, but I think the short answer is yes, katakana only for “foreign” names. I’ve even seen entirely Japanese names of people from abroad be written in katakana. (example: the [wikipedia page in Japanese for Rina Sawayama](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/リナ・サワヤマ), who is British of Japanese descent) I’ve actually also seen entirely Japanese people from Japan with Japanese names write their names in katakana only. (example: musician [Kaneko Ayano’s bio](https://kanekoayano.net/profile/) in Japanese)
For the second question, I think people who are Japanese but have a name like Lisa because they were born overseas or something might write it as [理沙](#fg “りさ”) or something because Lisa is essentially the same name as the common Japanese name Risa, but finding kanji for メアリー might be a bit of a stretch.
It depends on the usage. If its just during Japanese class, online or something non-official, foreigners can call themselves and use whatever 表記 they prefer. It just might generate some side eyes, especially if they are using ateji.
For the purposes of living in Japan, romaji is used for foreigners on their residence card, but if you’re Chinese or Korean and have a proper kanji name, you can also have that name displayed alongside the romaji.
For Japanese people born overseas or will go overseas at a young age, usually their parents (incl. international couples) will give them a name that works both in Japanese and English, like Sara, Maria or Alan. Also, some people still give their Japanese born and raised children a foreign-sounding name because it’s cool or cute.