A team from a nongovernment organization for disaster relief was to leave Wednesday for Houston to help people who survived Hurricane Katrina.
The Japan Emergency Team is believed to be the first such Japanese group sent in response to the devastation caused by the hurricane.
The team, initially composed of five people, will be assisting at Houston's Astrodome, where hurricane victims have been given refuge, bringing in disaster relief supplies and providing assistance with locating missing people, including missing Japanese.
The team will swell to 30 members in five-member, three-month rotations.