Late Professor Noboru Masuko, who showed a wide range of wisdom and intelligence in terms of not only refinery from ores to crude metals, surface treatments of metallic materials, processes from metals to corrosion products, etc., but also cultures and philosophies historically nurtured by the Japanese, once tackled “basic research on rusts” in unique approaches, to clarify their various physical-chemical characteristics for the first time in the world in around 1970. Studying the clarified physical-chemical natures of rusts, the authors carried out the development of nickel-added advanced weathering steel with improved anti-salinity properties. In this review, our ways of thinking are rearranged into models, so that readers easily follow our activities done in 1980s.In addition, recent trends in this field of study are also discussed.