This paper presents a shape optimization methodology for the design of the lowyield steel shear panel damper without stiffeners. The optimization was carried out as a multiobjective optimization problem to maximize the total absorbing energy and minimize the max. accumulated equivalent plastic strain of the shear panel damper under cyclic loading. With application of the optimization methodology of the response surface methodology combined with the design of experiment technique, firstly, finite element analysis with isotropic/kinematic hardening model was used to simulate the cyclic elasto-plastic behavior instead of experimental approach, and reliability of the numerical solutions was confirmed by comparing to previous experimental results. Then, based on the numerical analysis, the shape parameters effects and their interactions were investigated and second order polynomials were fitted to obtain the regression equations of the total absorbing energy and the max. accumulated equivalent plastic strain. Finally, the regression equations were applied to constitute the multi-objective functional by using the weighed sum method, and maximization problem of the formulated multi-objective functional was solved.