Former Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi was chosen Saturday as leader of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party during its leadership election in Tokyo, putting her in line to become the next prime minister. In a country that ranks poorly internationally in gender equality, the new president of Japan’s long-governing Liberal Democrats, and likely next prime minister, is an ultraconservative woman in a male-dominated party — whom critics call an obstacle to women’s advancement. Sanae Takaichi, 64, who would be the country’s first female prime minister, admires late former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and is a proponent of late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative vision for Japan. Takaichi is the first female president of Japan’s predominantly male ruling party that has dominated Japan’s postwar politics almost without interruption. She regularly visits Yasukuni Shrine, which Japan’s neighbors consider a symbol of militarism, though she has declined to say what she would do as prime minister.