Studies concerning the structures of heterogeneous catalysts and those of adsorbed layers on solid surfaces have rapidly progressed in the last ten years due to the development of a variety of new experimental techniques, including extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy. This paper gives a brief review of the experimental facilities in Japan for EXAFS and surface EXAFS (SEXAFS) spectroscopy by use of synchrotron radiation, EXAFS studies on catalysts and in particular those related to the structural changes of catalysts during catalytic reactions, the soft X-ray standing wave (SW) method, structural studies on sulphur adsorption on nickel crystal surfaces by means of SEXAFS and the SW method, and some recent work on the structures of adsorbed layers by other experimental techniques.