Sources of catastrophic earthquakes include not only major active faults, but also those with low slip rates. Geologic observations of two Japanese surface-rupturing earthquakes on low slip-rate strike-slip faults (the 1927 Kita-Tango and the 1943 Tottori earthquakes) suggests a concept of threshold of geomorphic detectability for strike-slip faults in humid mountainous regions. This threshold must be exceeded in order that progressive coseismic surface offset can be preserved as detectable faulted topography that may be otherwise erased by surface processes. The determined threshold minimum slip rates for both examples are about 0.1 mm/yr, which can be a quantitative explanation for lack of recognition and mapping of many active faults with slip rates of less than 0.1 mm/yr in Japan islands. Although this threshold is probably negligible in arid regions, it can produce another type of unrecognized active fault in humid mountainous regions, in addition to blind thrusts beneath thick sediments.