Chiyono Hasegawa

Chiyono Hasegawa, a resident of Saga Prefecture, Japan, who was born on 20 November 1896, is a woman who is presently the oldest living Japanese upon the death of Kama Chinen, of Okinawa, Japan, on 2 May 2010, when the latter was 114 years, 357 days old. Chinen was also the world's oldest person at the time of her death.
Since the death of Frenchwoman and world's oldest person Eugénie Blanchard on 4 November 2010, Hasegawa is the world's fourth-oldest living person as well as the world's oldest non-American, as Americans Eunice Sanborn (born 20 July 1896), Besse Cooper (born 26 August 1896), and Walter Breuning (born 21 September 1896) all surpass her age by several months each.
Hasegawa was anonymously noted by the Japanese authorities at age 109 and later publicly identified. She earned a visit from the Saga prefecture governor in September 2008, aged 111.
She is currently the 82nd oldest person on record as well as the 15th-oldest Japanese on record. Coincidentally, Hasegawa had been next to another Japanese woman called Chiyono in terms of rank until earlier this year. Chiyono Ohta, born 1 November 1896, had passed away on 25 January 2010 at 113 years, 85 days. She was the 10th-oldest living person at the time, a record she had gained just three days prior to her death. The title of 10th-oldest living person at that time then passed to Hasegawa.
On 2 May 2010, after she succeeded Kama Chinen, a ceremony was held in her honour at her nursing home that announced her as the new oldest living Japanese.

Hasegawa receiving her Respect for the Aged Day visit, September 2010.

In September 2010, Hasegawa was visited by the same governor who had visited her in 2008, and presented with porcelain wares and a basket of grapes, among other items.
It was reported that prior to her 114th birthday in 2010, Hasegawa had caught a cold, but was recovering at the time of her birthday and regaining her appetite. As she had a weakness for candy, the nursing home staff there had planned to serve her Bavarian cream as a special birthday dessert for her.

2 December 2011 - Chiyono Hasegawa died today as the 26th-oldest person on record, two weeks after her 115th birthday, at age 115 years, 12 days.