TOKYO >> Japan’s ruling party picked hardline conservative Sanae Takaichi as its head today, putting her on course to become the country’s first female prime minister in a move set to jolt investors and neighbors. A former economic security and internal affairs minister with an expansionary fiscal agenda for the world’s fourth-largest economy, Takaichi takes over a party in crisis. I wanted to turn people’s anxieties about their daily lives and the future into hope.”Takaichi, who says her hero is Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister, offers a starker vision for change than Koizumi and is potentially more disruptive. “It is hoped that under the leadership of the new (LDP) President Takaichi, Taiwan and Japan can deepen their partnership in areas such as economic trade, security, and technological cooperation,” he said in a statement. If elected prime minister, Takaichi said she would travel overseas more regularly than her predecessor to spread the word that “Japan is Back!”“I have thrown away my own work-life balance and I will work, work, work,” Takaichi said in her victory speech.