Junko began a modeling career and quickly became an idol amongst the Japanese population, and this created a lot of unwanted attention; according to Mukuro who was at the time disguised as Junko, she claimed that the only men who were interested in Junko were “creeps who did not actually care about her”.
She later enrolled into Hope's Peak Academy along with her twin sister Mukuro Ikusaba. She was able to befriend her classmates of Class 78, but was already masterminding Ultimate Despair along with Mukuro. The two of them began to scheme and plan the High School Life of Mutual Killing in order to find and inflict 'true despair' upon people.