itano released her first single, "dear j", on january 26, 2011. it reached number 1 on the oricon daily ranking and number 2 on the oricon weekly ranking, selling 204,981 copies. in april, she reprised her role as shibuya in "majisuka gakuen 2". her first digital single "wanna be now" reached number 2 on recochoku's daily charts and number 6 on the weekly charts. she placed eighth overall in akb48's 2011 general election held in june. her second single, "fui ni", was released on july 13 and sold 90,103 copies, and reached number one on the oricon weekly chart.