IODP Expedition 317 recovered a 550 m-thick sedimentary sequence spanning MIS 63–MIS 1 (last 1.76 Ma), except for early MIS 5–MIS 3, from the upper bathyal zone (344 m water depth) of Canterbury Basin, east of New Zealand (Hole U1352B). Thus, this hole was chosen as the sole, well dated core to investigate timeseries changes in the benthic foraminiferal fauna and paleoceanography on the upper slope off Canterbury during the Pleistocene. This paper describes and illustrates the taxonomic character of the benthic foraminifera for the upper 252 m of the hole, spanning the last ca. 880 ka. A total of 179 species, including unidentified species, were found and comprise 4 agglutinated species (all in Suborder Textulariina), 11 porcelaneous species (all in Suborder Miliolina), and 164 hyaline species (3 Spirillinina, 76 Lagenina, 3 Robertinina and 82 Rotaliina). Many of these species are Recent shallow- and deep-water benthic foraminifera that have been recognised previously around New Zealand or species found in the Cenozoic onland strata in the Canterbury region. However, many species with a lower frequency of occurrence have not hitherto been found in New Zealand waters, but had been reported in the Pacific or the South Atlantic oceans. Three new species (Palliolatella grenfelli sp. nov., Palliolatella haywardi sp. nov. and Rotaliella sabaae sp. nov.) are described here.