A series of shaking table tests on a high-rise building are conducted in order to acquire realistic data on the damage. The adopted test system consists of a lower part represented by four-story steel frame structure and an upper part simplified by substitute layers made of concrete mass and rubber bearings. In the tests using long period ground motions, the specimen is subjected to large cumulative inelastic deformations as well as large inter-story drifts. Such seismic loads are represented by total input energy to the specimen. The total input energy from each test is plotted in the corresponding energy spectrum of the input wave, indicating reasonable correlations. The beam ends dissipate ninety percent of the total input energy of the steel frame. The results characterized by input energy and its distribution suggest the adopted measuring methods reasonable. The seismic performance assessment in terms of input energy can be developed not just for a seismic design but also for damage monitoring techniques.