Junko Minagawa is a prominent Japanese voice actress and singer born on November 22, 1975, in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki, Japan. She is affiliated with the talent agency Haikyo and is known for her distinctive, husky voice and her expert portrayal of young male characters.

Before entering the entertainment industry, Minagawa was an ordinary office worker. Her desire to pursue a lifelong dream of becoming an actress led her to leave her job. After initially considering theater training, she discovered and enrolled in a voice actor training school, which eventually led to her recruitment by a production company. Her debut as a voice actor was in a radio commercial, followed by a minor role in the long-running anime Soreike! Anpanman.

Her career changed dramatically in 2001 when she was cast as the protagonist Ryoma Echizen in the highly popular anime series The Prince of Tennis. As a relatively unknown newcomer at the time, landing the lead role in an adaptation of a Weekly Shōnen Jump manga was considered a significant breakthrough. The role of the prodigious tennis player became her signature performance, and she has continued to voice the character for over two decades across numerous sequels, films, and OVAs, including The Prince of Tennis II: U-17 World Cup and Ryoma! The Prince of Tennis. The original manga author, Takeshi Konomi, has been noted as saying that Minagawa became the character.

Building on her success, Minagawa established a prolific career with a wide range of roles. She is particularly recognized for her work in long-running franchises. In the Aria series, she voices the skilled and professional gondolier Akira E. Ferrari, a role she has reprised in multiple installments such as Aria the Avvenire and Aria the Benedizione. In the Code Geauss franchise, she plays the formidable Cornelia Li Britannia, appearing in the main series and the film Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection. She also took on the role of the elegant and powerful Sailor Uranus, Haruka Tenoh, in the modern Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal series and its subsequent films, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal and Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cosmos the Movie.

Her filmography demonstrates her range, encompassing everything from action and fantasy to drama. She has voiced Ayaka Yukihiro in the various Negima! anime adaptations, Yun in Akatsuki no Yona, Oz Vessalius in Pandora Hearts, and Ren Kaidou in Super Lovers. She also takes on villainous and complex characters, such as the young looking but ancient Khamsin in Shakugan no Shana and the android Julio in Kirakira Precure a la Mode. Beyond anime, her voice work extends to video games, where she is known for roles like Xingqiu in Genshin Impact, and to Japanese dubs of foreign films and TV series, providing the Japanese voice for Ada Wong in the Resident Evil: Damnation film and for characters played by actresses such as Rebecca Ferguson and Kate Winslet.

In addition to her acting, Minagawa is an accomplished singer. She has released several solo singles and albums. She has also performed numerous character songs for The Prince of Tennis, some of which have charted on the prestigious Oricon weekly singles chart. Her live performances, including a 2004 concert at Zepp Tokyo performed in character as Ryoma Echizen, are a notable part of her engagement with fans.