The application of scanning probe anodization to nanolithography is described. The electrochemical processing of material surfaces at nanometer scale both laterally and vertically was conducted by scanning probe anodization, which used the tip-sample junction of a scanning probe microscope connected with an adsorbed water column as a minute electrochemical cell. Silicon (Si) samples whose surfaces were terminated with hydrogen (Si-H samples) or covered with an organosilane monolayer were used. Silicon oxide (SiOx) patterns were prepared on the Si-H sample surfaces by the use of anodization of Si, while in the second case the organosilane layer was selectively degraded by anodic corrosion. Furthermore, pattern transfer processes that fabricated metal nanostructures using these patterned SiOx or organosilane layers as templates were developed. These processes are based on area-selective electroless plating where selectivity depends on the difference in the chemical reactivity between the surface modified by scanning probe anodization and the unmodified surface.