The current seismic design procedure for prestressed concrete buildings in Japan is described. The design seismic loads for prestressed concrete buildings provided in NZS 4203:1984 are compared with those in the corresponding Japanese code. Comparisons between prestressed concrete and ordinary reinforced concrete buildings are discussed with regard to design seismic load, dynamic response during earthquake motions and the performance of beam-column joints under reversed cyclic loading. The results of several tests are summarised.