Story by Associated Press(CNN) — Japan’s governing party on Saturday elected former Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi as its new leader, making her likely to become the country’s first female prime minister. Takaichi beat Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of popular former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in a runoff in an intraparty vote by the LDP on Saturday. Takaichi replaces Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba as the party hopes to regain public support and stay in power after major election losses. She is likely to be Japan’s next prime minister because the party remains by far the largest in the lower house, which determines the national leader, and because opposition groups are highly splintered. Koizumi would have been the youngest prime minister in more than a century if he had won.