The catalytic removal of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from lean-burn exhaust emissions is one of the major challenges in environmental catalysis. Among the NOx emission control technologies, NOx storage/reduction (NSR) is currently regarded as one of the most practical technologies for lean-burn gasoline and diesel vehicles. This review gives a comprehensive overview of NSR technology, including the NSR reaction mechanisms, degradation mechanisms and NSR catalyst developments. The NSR reaction and degradation mechanisms will be addressed based on a typical NSR catalyst such as Pt/BaO/Al2O3, along with the concurrent new NSR catalyst developments for enhancing the NSR performance and alleviating their sulfur poisoning and thermal degradation.