Junki Kono (河野 純喜; Kono Junki), simply known as the moniker JUNKI, was born on January 20, 1998, in Nara, Japan and is a Japanese male idol and singer who gained recognition as a trainee on the first Japanese season of the widely popular South Korean talent program PRODUCE 101.

Kono would eventually make the top eleven list, landing him a spot as a member in the group JO1 – the first group to come out of PRODUCE 101 JAPAN, and the first of the PRODUCE franchise to be a permanent group.

Prior to PRODUCE 101, JUNKI had no official training in dancing or singing, and actually had a somewhat established ongoing career as a soccer player, as he had been on the soccer team in high school and even represented his hometown of Nara in the national championship while a sophomore in high school.