In this study, the effects of parameters in landslide simulation model (LS-RAPID) on the dynamic behaviour of earthquake-induced rapid landslides were examined to demonstrate the importance of each parameter. It was applied to a case study in Suruga Bay, Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan. The topographic data of the slope surface and sliding surface was generated from digital elevation model (DEM). Three different real seismic records were used as the inputs of earthquake i.e. 2008 Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku Inland Earthquake, 2009 Suruga Bay Earthquake, and the latest 2011 Tohoku Earthquake. Results show that landslides can be triggered by strong seismic loading using 2011 Tohoku real seismic records under a certain pore water pressure within LS-RAPID. The key parameters, including shear resistance at the steady state with physical meaning were found to have significant effect on the dynamic behaviour of these earthquake-induced rapid landslides. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.