Abstract Ground motions at several Japanese sites are evaluated using recently-developed techniques which involve assessing the base-rock motion at the site due to an earthquake, establishing the properties of the overlying soil layers, and computing the response at the ground surface using a lumped-mass-analysis procedure. The maximum acceleration and the form of the response spectra for ground motions recorded at the several sites agree reasonably well with the computed values. It is concluded that where the soil conditions can be reliably determined, the analytical procedures offer good promise as a means of considering the effects of local soil conditions in the prediction of ground response.