Canadian Solar has announced that it has shipped a record of 508 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules under its own Canadian Solar brand thus becoming the largest foreign PV module brand in the Japanese market with an estimated 7% market share in 2013.

To take advantage of its strong position in the Japanese solar energy market, Canadian Solar is proud to announce the opening of two additional business operation centers to better serve four geographic regions in Japan.

The Tokyo operation center will focus on the central-east region, Fukuoka will serve customers in the south region, while Osaka and Sendai will cover the central-west and north regions, respectively.

In addition to PV module sales, Canadian Solar is also one of the leading brands to supply solar PV module system kit solutions for residential and commercial rooftop applications in the Japanese market.

The Company also has made further acquisitions of utility-scale PV project permits to bring its total late-stage utility scale project pipeline in Japan to 330MW, up from 278MW at the end of the third quarter of 2013.

"Japan has been a key market for us since 2009, when we initiated our market diversification strategy. We are proud of our progress and our accomplishments in the space of 5 years, as we built our team to over 100 employees, and expanded our business scope from residential and commercial PV system sales to include module sales and utility-scale solar project development.

"We are also delighted that as a result of our hard work and commitment we are able to establish Canadian Solar as the top foreign brand in this important growth market," commented by Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar.