  Physical properties of the thermoelectric oxide NaCo_2O_4 are briefly
reviewed. The high thermoelectric properties of this material are attributed to
the substantially enhanced effective mass, which comes from the large entropy
of Co$^{4+}$ in the low spin state. The large entropy confined in the CoO_2
block causes a spin-density-wave transition at 22 K upon Cu substitution for
Co, which can be regarded as ``order from disorder''.
