After the destructive damage along the surface faults during the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, Japan, the effects of the shallow portion of the source fault above the seismogenic zone on the near-fault ground motions and fault displacements have drawn attention among research communities working on seismic hazard studies. Recent progress in studies for detailed geometry, structure, and physical properties in the shallow depth along the earthquake fault zone enables us to understand physical generation mechanism of ground motion and fault displacements in the near-fault area and to develop sophisticated methods for their quantitative evaluation. In this session, we would like to discuss the state-of-art and future direction for the seismic hazard assessment in the near-fault area of active faults by gathering scientific results from significant earthquakes in Japan and other countries. We welcome contributions from wide area of research communities such as strong motion seismology, earthquake source physics, active fault studies, earthquake engineering, exploration geophysics, and other related fields.