TOKYO —

The government on Tuesday abolished a panel on revitalizing education and 17 other panels set up under the previous Liberal Democratic Party-led government, after reviewing their functions and relevance. The move is based on the decision Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s cabinet made at the time of its inauguration two months ago to reorganize the government’s policy-related panels, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said at a news conference.

Among the other panels abolished are the panel on global warming, the headquarters on promoting the decentralization of power to localities, the ministerial meeting on negotiations on normalizing ties with North Korea, and the ministerial meeting on promoting tourism.

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3 Comments

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  thepro at 12:52 PM JST - 17th November

  Education, global warming? These are not important?

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  some14some at 02:05 PM JST - 17th November

  Now set up new panels with new names.

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  SumoBob at 04:17 PM JST - 17th November

  This is good news. Perhaps we'll now have a panel studying how to remove the mandatory, "love your country (race)" curriculum set to become a reality soon. Perhaps we'll have a environmental panel discussing real threats to our health and well-being, rather than a panel discussing whether ware-ware Japanese dioxins released after burning plastic waste is the same as Gaikoku dioxins, known for decades to cause cancers and birth defects.

  Perhaps future panels will be filled with progressive experts in the field, and not the standard, Todai geriatrics bent on keeping the status-quo. One can only hope.

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