text: In 1987, he was promoted to chief designer of Tricot knitwear line and then moved on to design for the Comme Des Garçons Homme line.
  Starting in 1992, he has worked under his own name as part of Comme des Garçons, debuting his first at the concourse of Tokyo's Ryogoku Station the same year, starting his own line under the Comme Des Garçons name "Junya Watanabe Comme Des Garçons" in 1993 and began showing his womenswear in Paris that same year. He debuted a men's line in 2000. During the 2000-2001 Fall/Winter season, he introduced his "Techno-culture" collection, a mélange of artisanal shapes and innovative, experimental fabrics.
  In 2007, Watanabe was licensed by Converse to design a series of All-Star shoes. Other collaborations include Levi's, Hervier Productions, Seil Marschall, Carhartt, Nike, Merz b. Schwanen, The North Face, ArkAir etc. In 2012, Watanabe designed the remote-control toy car The Hornet for the Tamiya Corporation, and released a matching pair of Reebok Pump (Pump Furys).
  In March 2016, Watanabe created a solar-powered jacket/coat for his FW16 menswear line. In 2020, he launched a capsule collection with Brooks Brothers. He also worked with Comme des Garçons and the video game designer Yoko Taro to develop a cosplay collection.