The purpose of this report is to directly observe the passive layer and concentration behavior of nitrogen interstitially incorporated in Ni-saving high nitrogen stainless steel (FINS) using an aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (STEM-EDS) or - electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). The thickness of the passive layer barely changed after 1000 h single cell operation, compared with the as-polished state. The observed passive layer was thin (3 nm) and mainly composed of chromium oxide, as confirmed by STEM-EDS. It was confirmed that nitrogen was not present in the passive layer, but was concentrated at the interface between the passive layer and the metal bulk. The concentrated area ranged approximately 2 nm to steel bulk from the interface. With help of the STEM-EDS and EELS, we were able to understand the nature of the passive layer for Ni-saving HNS, which caused remarkable improvement of the cell performance due to superior corrosion resistance. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.