PIEZOELECTRIC ELEMENT, ACTUATOR ELEMENT, ACTUATOR, POWER GENERATING ELEMENT, POWER GENERATING DEVICE AND FLEXIBLE SHEET

A piezoelectric element is provided which enables superior piezoelectric effects to be attained while having a comparatively simple structure and being easy to produce. The piezoelectric element according to the present invention includes a plurality of strip-shaped flexible sheets having: a dielectric elastomer layer; and an electrode layer that is stretchable and laminated on the dielectric elastomer layer, the plurality of flexible sheets being superposed crosswise on each other and alternately folded in an accordion shape such that the flexible sheets are alternately stacked. It is preferred that at least one of the plurality of flexible sheets includes a pair of the dielectric layers laminated on front and back face sides of the electrode layer. The pair of flexible sheets are preferably superposed on each other crosswise at substantially right angles. The flexible sheets are preferably stacked to give no less than 10 layers and no greater than 10,000 layers.