The following table provides access to names and contact information for CRS experts on policy concerns relating to the nuclear and humanitarian disaster unfolding in Japan. Specific policy areas are identified.

This report briefly discusses the March 11, 2001, earthquake off the east coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. The earthquake caused an automatic shutdown of eleven of Japan's fifty-five operating nuclear power plants. The plants closes to the earthquake's epicenter, Fukushima and Onagawa, were damaged by the earthquake and resulting tsunami. This report also discusses efforts by the United States and other countries to provide assistance to Japan to deal with the nuclear crisis.