After meeting some courteous and likable Japanese students, Kolbe decided voyage to Japan, where little Christian activity was occurring at the time.  In February 1930, he travelled to Japan with four monks and absolutely no knowledge of Japan or Japanese. 

However, with the enthusiastic support of Japan's bishop, he was able to found a monastery near Nagasaki similar to Niepokalanow, which had twenty-four friars in only four years, who assisted him in the publication of the Japanese version of the "Knight of the Immaculate" magazine.  Incredibly, the monastery survived the nuclear bombings of World War II.  In the aftermath, it served as an orphanage to as many as one thousand orphaned children.  "The Garden of the Immaculate", as it is called, survives today as the center for Franciscan activity in Japan. 

In 1932, he travelled to Malabar, India and founded another monastery, which unfortunately does not remain.  In 1936, he was recalled to Poland by his superiors so that his tuberculosis, which continued to threaten his life, could be treated.