HCL hopes staff who left Japan can return in weeks

HCL Technologies hopes 170 of its staff who had left quake-hit Japan will be able to return to the country within weeks if the situation there continues to improve.

HCL, along with other Indian technology companies including Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies, are relocating Japan-based staff elsewhere partly due to fear of radiation from the failed Fukushima nuclear reactor.

"We are very hopeful as the situation unfolds that they will be able to return in the next couple of weeks or so, or even earlier," Shami Khorana, global head of sales and marketing at HCL, told Reuters.

He said HCL's revenue from Japan was relatively small. The company generates around 59% of its sales from the Americas.

Over 1000 HCL engineers are working on Japanese projects but only 265 of that total are on site in Japan.