In Japan earthquake isolation technology has become increasingly necessary with the growing dominance of so-called "high technology" industries and is now being used to provide effective aseismic protection for precision equipment which is of major importance in such countries. The present applications are for computer systems and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. For computers, particularly those of banks, earthquake isolation of the floors is widely used. For semiconductor manufacturing equipment, earthquake isolation has begun to be used for the components; the isolation of the floors will follow. For both applications, earthquake isolation has not yet been used for entire buildings, but is expected in the near future. Promising applications for the future include bio-technology facilities, highly automated factories and nuclear plants, especially fast breeder reactor power stations.