The nitrogen-doped CeO2 powders were synthesized through a mild wet-chemical method followed by calcination in air. The results of lattice parameter calculations and XPS analyses suggested that nitrogen was incorporated into the CeO2 lattice, the lattice expansion occurred, accompanied by the presence of Ce3+. Moreover, FTIR analysis revealed a possible bonding nature of nitrogen as Ce-N bond in the cubic CeO(2 )lattice. The nitrogen-doped CeO2 powders showed enhanced oxygen storage capacities with H-2 serving as probe gas, and the nitrogen-doped CeO2 sample synthesized with starting N: Ce (mol) = 1.5 showed the maximum H-2 consumption (1.49 mmol/g). Moreover, the dominant role of nitrogen-induced defects in CeO2 was clear for the enhanced oxygen storage capacities.