From the first day I started to learn Japanese, I saw people use _hiragana_ to
help read _kanji_ , they are usually written on the top of those _kanji_ s.

But recently I also saw some Japanese use _katakana_ , to not only spell and
mimic the sound of the foreign words, but also write them on the top of
_kanji_ to aid in their reading, instead of _hiragana_.

Is this also okay or common practice? Are there any differences, or does it
not matter?
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katakana handwriting furigana
For furigana, can katakana be used instead of hiragana?
What you're talking about is called furigana (振り仮名). It's normally written in
hiragana script, except maybe in dictionaries sometimes when katakana is used
to indicate the Chinese reading. Another case for using katakana as furigana
is when you want to write a foreign pronunciation for a word written in kanji.
The [Wikipedia page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furigana) for furigana gives
the example of 一角獣 (one horn beast) with furigana "ユニコーン" (unicorn). But those
are exceptions, in most cases, for difficult kanji, hiragana is used.
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From my experience, furigana can be written in either but it is usually
written in hiragana. There are a few exceptions that will almost always be
written in katakana, but I've only seen one or two words so far that do that.

In other circumstance (not articles, books, papers, etc) katakana may be used.
For example, when filling out paperwork in Japan, I've been asked to write out
the furigana for my name and address. They requested that the furigana for my
name be written in hiragana and my address in katakana (Depending on whether
the box said ふりがな or フリガナ). Another situation was in my textbooks or kanji
books. When listing The different readings for a kanji, the on-reading is
always written in katakana and the kun-reading is always in hiragana.
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answer