The Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE) program is a coordinated, multiexpedition drilling project designed to investigate fault mechanics and seismogenesis along subduction megathrusts through direct sampling, in situ measurements, and long-term monitoring in conjunction with allied laboratory and numerical modeling studies. Some of the fundamental scientific objectives of the NanTroSEIZE drilling project include characterizing the nature of fault slip and strain accumulation, fault and wall rock composition, fault architecture, and state variables throughout the active plate boundary system to a depth of 7000 meters below seafloor. It is also important to show how such properties evolve from shallow, presubduction conditions in the Shikoku Basin to greater depths of the accretionary prism where fault slip is seismogenic. Within this context, the primary goals for Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 333 are: (1) drilling and coring of previously unsampled intervals of sediment and basalt at IODP Sites C0011 and C0012 in the Shikoku Basin and (2) drilling and coring an Ancillary Project Letter (738-APL: Nankai Trough Submarine Landslide History [NanTroSLIDE]) at a site near the updip terminus of the megasplay fault.