Recently, many lead-free piezoelectric materials have been investigated for the replacement of existing Pb-based piezoelectric ceramics because of globally increasing environmental interest. There has been remarkable improvement in piezoelectric properties of some lead-free ceramics such as $(Bi,Na)TiO_3-(Bi,K)TiO_3-BaTiO_3$, $(Na,K)NbO_3-LiSbO_3$, and so on. However, no one still has comparable piezoelectric properties to lead-based materials. Therefore, new lead-free piezoelectric ceramics are required. $BiFeO_3$ has a rhombohedrally distorted perovskite structure at room temperature and a very high Curie temperature ($T_C$= 1,100 K). And a very large electric polarization of 50 ~ 60 ${mu}C/cm^2$ has been reported both in epitaxial thin film and single crystal $BiFeO_3$. Therefore, a high piezoelectric effect is expected also in a $BiFeO_3$ ceramics. The recent research activities on $BiFeO_3$ or $BiFeO_3$-based solid solutions are reviewed in this article.