In subduction zones, megathrust seismicity depends on the hydrogeological, physical and mechanical properties of sediments before they enter the subduction zone and how these properties evolve through the subduction process. In particular, fluids are progressively released by compaction and/or mineral dehydration reactions as burial increases, resulting in the build-up of pore fluid pressure in low-permeability sediments that strongly affects fault behavior through its control on effective normal stress. Thus, characterizing the compaction state and bound water content of sediments in subduction systems is crucial. During IODP Expedition 372 and 375, Site U1518 was drilled in the frontal wedge of the Northern Hikurangi margin ~6.5 km west of the deformation front. This site penetrated an active thrust fault, the Papaku fault, its hanging wall and uppermost footwall. The Papaku fault, intersected at ~304 meters below sea floor, is a westward-dipping splay fault which is thought to lie in the SSE rupture area, to host SSEs and to have accommodated several kilometers of shortening within the prism. It is composed of a ~18m-thick main fault zone with a mixture of brittle and ductile structures and ductile features locally overprinted by brittle fractures and faults. Below, there are a ~21m-thick zone of gradually decreasing brittle-ductile deformation and a ~10m-thick subsidiary fault zone. The folded, faulted and pervasively fractured hanging wall corresponds to Early-Mid Pleistocene hemipelagic silty-claystone with fine-grained turbidites sequences. The footwall is composed by relatively undeformed Mid-Late Pleistocene bioturbated hemipelagic mudstones with turbidites sequences. We use IODP expeditions 372-375 and post-cruise porosity, logging and chemical data to characterize the porosity of sediments at Site U1518, including interstitial porosity, bound water content and fracture porosity. Interstitial porosity is obtained by correcting total porosity measured onboard accounting for clay-mineral bound water using Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC). Unlike total porosity measured onboard, interstitial porosity is representative of the compaction state of sediments. To better characterize interstitial porosity, we document the evolution of the structure of meso- to macropores with depth using mercury injection capillary pressure and low-field nuclear magnetic resonance. We assess the compaction state of sediments at Site U1518 by comparing the interstitial porosity-effective vertical stress curve with that of equivalent siliciclastic units at Site U1520. This site sampled and logged the undeformed input sedimentary section and the top of the oceanic crust ~95 km from shore. We show that the hanging-wall of the Papaku thrust fault is overconsolidated whereas the footwall is normally consolidated. Finally, we discuss deformation history of sediments during accretion regarding the compaction profile and the deformation structures observed at Site U1518.