The present article is concerned with the overview of carbonaceous materials used as anode materials for lithium ion secondary batteries. This article first classified carbonaceous materials into graphite, soft carbon and hard carbon according to their crystal structures, and then summarised the previous works on the characteristics of lithium intercalation/deintercalation into/from the carbonaceous materials. Finally this article reviewed our recent research works on the mechanism of lithium transport through graphite, soft carbon and hard carbon electrodes from the kinetic view point by the analysis of the theoretical and experimental potentiostatic current transients.