Chronic oxidative stress produced by exposure to environmental chemicals or pathophysiological states can lead animals to aging, carcinogenesis and degenerative diseases. Indirect antioxidative mechanisms, in which natural or synthetic agents are used to coordinately induce the expression of cellular antioxidant capacity, have been shown to protect cells and organisms from oxidative damages. Electrophile and free radical detoxifying enzymes, which were originally identified as the products of genes induced by cancer chemopreventive agents, are members of this protective system. The NFE2 family transcription factor Nrf2 was found to govern expression of these detoxifying enzymes, and screening for Nrf2-regulated genes has identified many gene categories involved in maintaining cellular redox potential and protection from oxidative damage as Nrf2 downstream genes. Further, studies using Nrf2-deficient mice revealed that these mutant mice showed more susceptible phenotypes towards exposure to environmental chemicals/carcinogens and in oxidative stress related disease models. With the finding that cancer chemopreventive efficacy of indirect antioxidants (enzyme inducers) is lost in the absence of Nrf2, a central role of Nrf2 in the antioxidative protective system has been firmly established. Promising results from cancer prevention clinical trials using enzyme inducers propose that pharmacological interventions that modulate Nrf2 can be an effective strategy to protect tissues from oxidative damage.