Designer Jo Nakamura started januka in 2012 after studying industrial design at Pratt Institute in New York and earning a Master of Design at Design Academy Eindhoven, under the teaching of Gijs Bakker. Nakamura showed work with Droog Design from 2007 before returning to Japan. The label's guiding idea is to step slightly away from the model: it questions accepted jewelry techniques and lets structure become part of the design. Working with craftsmen, it joins product design thinking with traditional techniques, gives every form a purpose and adds no decoration without meaning.