Draft:Junki Kono

Junki Kono (河野 純喜), is a Japanese singer and actor. He debuted as a member and vocal leader of the Japanese boy band JO1 in 2020, after placing ninth in the first season of Produce 101 Japan. He hosted NHK Educational TV's ''Hangul! Navi'' (2022–2023) and was featured in SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]'s single "Outsiders" in 2022.

Early life
Junki Kono was born on January 20, 1998, in Nara, Japan. Kono was an active child who played football for his local Heguri Football Club. In 2018, he played for Horyuji Football Club as their midfielder and won the Kansai qualifying round of the 25th National Club Team Football Championships on September 9.

Kono is a graduate of Doshisha University's Faculty of Policy Studies. While attending university, he worked part-time as security in a concert venue, where he realized that he couldn't give up on his dreams of becoming a singer.

Alongside his native Japanese, Kono is learning Korean.

2019: Produce 101 Japan
After graduation, Kono was job hunting and had received an offer which he turned down to participate in Produce 101 Japan, a reality competition show that's a spin-off of the South Korean Produce 101 franchise. Kono auditioned for the show in September 2019, as part of the audition group Six Packs. The show ended in December, where he finished in ninth place with 159,057 votes.

2020–present: Debut in JO1 and solo activities
After undergoing training in Korea, Kono debuted in JO1 and their first single, Protostar, was released on March 4, 2020, under Lapone Entertainment. In December, he appeared on The First Take, performing "Infinity" from Protostar on the 4th and "Voice" from the group's first album The Star on the 16th. His performance soon started trending on Twitter, and on January 13, 2021, Kono released both acoustic versions of "Mugendai" and "Voice".

In April, 2022, he had a regular role as a student on NHK-E's ''Hangul! Navi'', a Korean learning show. On May 22, Kono co-wrote the song "Touch!" for JO1's second studio album Kizuna, and on the 25th, Kono and bandmate Sho Yonashiro featured on SawanoHiroyuki[nZk]'s single "Outsiders" which was used as the ending theme song of the anime Fanfare of Adolescence.

In 2023, Kono co-wrote the song "NEWSmile" for JO1's third studio album Equinox. It was used as the theme song of the anime Mezamashi 8 from April 3 onwards. On August 29, it was announced that Kono will be the MC of the TV program Case Study ~ Forbidden Love Experiment ~ which is part of the channel segment  on Fuji TV. He worked alongside his bandmate Keigo Sato for both airings of the programme which ran again on September 5.

In 2024, Kono was announced as a cast member of TBS Televison's show , which will air from April 5 until June. The cast is collectively known as the "Love It! Family", and he will appear every Thursday starting from April 11. On June 10 it was announced that Kono will appear in the drama My Girlfriend's Child which will be broadcast on Kansai TV and Fuji TV from June 25. The drama is based on the eponymous manga series by Mamoru Aoi, with Kono playing the role of Iida Tomohiro, a second-year high school student and classmate of the main character.

Songwriting credits
All song credits are adapted from the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers's database, unless otherwise noted.