I ditched Newcastle for Japan – it feels safer here for my family

I ditched Newcastle for Japan – it feels safer here for my family

Swapping the north of England for Japan was not always part of the plan for Joe Fowler. Two decades ago, as a recent university graduate, he was not even considering moving abroad. Then by chance he met a recruiter for an English school in Japan at a careers fair. Within months, Newcastle-born Fowler had moved to Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, to teach English. “It was a life-changing year for me,” says Fowler, who moved back to Newcastl…