French retail giant Carrefour is planning to open three new hypermarkets in Japan in October, taking the number of stores it operates there to seven.

Of the three new stores, which are all to be located around Osaka, western Japan, the first opened on 1 October, the second is due to open on 15 October and the third on 24 October, reported Agence France Presse. Each new store will employ about 500 staff.

Carrefour opened its first outlet in Japan in December 2000 and planned to open another 12 hypermarkets by 2003.