Hasegawa died of natural causes at 8.28am on 2 December 2011, just twelve days after celebrating her 115th birthday and 22 days before Koto Okubo's 114th birthday, and was succeeded as the oldest living Japanese person by Jiroemon Kimura, who later became the oldest man ever as well as the so far only man and also the first Japanese person to become at least 116 years old after Tane Ikai, 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.