Junki Kono

Junki Kono河野 純喜|Kōno Junki|born January 28, 1998, is a Japanese singer. 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.
==Personal 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.
==Career==
===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 ハングルッ!ナビ, 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 Tuesday NEXT! 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 Love It!, 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.
==Discography==
Kono's discography with JO1
===Singles===
Title 	Year	Peak chart position 	Album
Title 	Year	JPNHot 	Album
"Infinity" (無限大)name=TFT|"Infinity" and "Voice" are both songs by JO1, which were performed by Kono alone on The First Take. 	2021	"Infinity" (無限大) (from The First Take) and "Voice" (君の声) (from The First Take) did not enter the Hot 100, but appeared at number 73 and 79, respectively, on the download component chart.}} 	rowspan="2" Non-album singles
"Voice" (君の声){name=TFT 	2021	—name=TFTBB 	
===As a featured artist===
Title 	Year	Peak chart position	Sales	Album
Title 	Year	JPN 	Sales	Album
"Outsiders"	2022	25 	
* JPN: 2,709	V
===Songwriting credits===
All song credits are adapted from the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers's database, unless otherwise noted.
 Key
	Indicates single release
 
Title 	Year	Artist 	Album 	Lyricist	Lyricist 	
Title 	Year	Artist 	Album 	Credited	With 	
"Touch!" 	2022	JO1 	Kizuna 	 	Jinli (Fullbloom)	
"NEWSmile" 	2023	JO1 	Equinox	 		Syoya, Sukai, Sho, Shosei	
"Love All Star"	2024	JO1, INI, DXTeen	 	 		Sky, Hiromu, Koshin, Ken	
==Filmography==
Kono's filmography with JO1
 Screen reader-only
Year 	Title 	Role 	Note 	
2019 	Produce 101 Japan 	Contestant 	Finished 9th 	
2020 	Colorful: Warau no Chikara de 77 Oku Saisei	Host 	 	
2022–2023	ja|ハングルッ!ナビ 	Student 	Cast member 	
2022 	Short Program 	Wataru Matsumura	Anthology series; lead role 	
2023 	ja|火曜NEXT! 	Host 	On August 29 and September 5	
2024 	ja|ラヴィット! 	Cast member 	 	
Category:People from Nara Prefecture 
Category:Japanese people
Category:1998 births
Category:Japanese singers