  After a brief overview of the realization of chiral symmetry in hot and/or
dense medium, the implications of the existence of a light scalar-isoscalar
meson (which we call $\sigma$ throughout this report) are discussed in the
vacuum and in the medium. Special emphasis is put on its relation to the
fluctuation of the chiral order parameter $<\bar{q}q>$. In the vacuum, the
$\sigma$-meson is an elusive resonance corresponding to a pole deep in the
second Riemann sheet of the $\pi$-$\pi$ scattering matrix in the $I$=$J$=0
channel. This is because the the amplitude fluctuation of $<\bar{q}q>$
(corresponding to {\rm ur}-$\sigma$) and the phase fluctuation of $<\bar{q}q>$
(2 pion states) mix strongly in the vacuum. As the temperature and/or density
of the system increase, however, there arises a softening of this complex pole
due to the partial restoration of chiral symmetry. Such soft modes play a key
role to understand the QCD phase structure. We demonstrate that even a slight
softening of the $\sigma$ mode could induce strong spectral enhancement and
strong $\pi$-$\pi$ correlation near the 2$m_{\pi}$ threshold in the $I$=$J$=0
channel, which thereby can be a signature of the partial restoration of chiral
symmetry. Such spectral enhancement may be seen not only in hot matter created
by the relativistic heavy ion collisions but also in cold matter (heavy nuclei)
probed by photons and hadrons. Relevance of the partial restoration of chiral
symmetry in heavy nuclei with the recent data by the CHAOS and CB
collaborations as well as with on-going and future experiments are also
discussed.
