Japan is one of the regions which are most prone to natural hazards. Among such disasters as indeced by heavy rainfalls, typhoons, and volcanic actions, earthquakes have been causing a variety of bad consequences in the history. Under this hard natural environment, technologies have developed historically and in modern times in a variety of directions in order to prevent or mitigate natural hazards. The earliest examples of those developments are the famous seismic coefficient method of seismic design and Mononobe-Okabe earth pressure theory. Repeated strong earthquakes in densely populated area have kept showing new kinds of problems. Under many disasters, it was often possible to demonstrate the effectiveness of new mitigative technologies. Problems related with soil liquefaction is one of the examples of this type. Starting with the assessment of liquefaction potential and prevention of the onset of liquefaciotn, geotechnical engineering in the recent decades is shifting to the performance-based approach in which the consequence of liquefaction is assessed and, if the consequence is not allowable, it is mitigated. This situation has provided significant research topics, which are extremely difficult, and important achievements have been accomplished. The latest problem to be solved is the introduction of broader viewpoints in which the seismic resistance of individual structurea is studied and determined so that the seismic vulnerability of the whole public may be minimized. This would be a combination of geotechnical engineering and regional economic planning.