Chiyono Hasegawa

was a Japanese supercentenarian and at the time of her death the oldest living Japanese person for over one and a half year after Kame Chinen's death on 2 May 2010, and the second-oldest living person in the world behind American woman Besse Cooper.
Cooper and Hasegawa were, after the death of Italianwoman Venere Pizzinato who was just three days younger than Hasegawa and died 4 months before Hasegawa, the last two living people born in 1896.
Hasegawa was visited by Governor Furukawa of Saga Prefecture at her nursing home on Senior Citizen's Day in September 2008.
Hasegawa died of natural causes at 8.28am on 2 December 2011, just 12 days after celebrating her 115th birthday, and was succeeded as the oldest living Japanese person by Jiroemon Kimura, and as the oldest living Japanese woman by Koto Okubo. Hasegawa, Kimura and Okubo were the first three Japanese persons who became 115 years old after 116-year-old Tane Ikai's death in July 1995.