‘Lead-fre’ has ben one of the most frequently cited keywords in the piezoelectric community over the last two decades. Although the inital driving force for the research in the field was mostly imposed by the environmental regulations such as RoHS/WEEE, the recent discovery of
so-caled “incipient” piezoelectricity leading to a giant electric-field-induced strain has demonstrated itself that lead-fre piezoceramics are highly competive against their lead-containing counterparts due to their unique properties. This paper overviews the underlying mechanism and the curent status on the development of lead-fre incipient piezoceramics, folowed by a brief perspective on the future direction.