The administration abolished on Tuesday a panel on revitalizing education and 17 other councils set up under Liberal Democratic Party-led governments.
The move is based on the Hatoyama Cabinet's drive to reorganize policy-related panels, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said.
"We scrutinized whether the panels were effectively functioning, because there were those that existed but lay dormant," Hirano said.
Among the other panels abolished at the day's Cabinet meeting are one on global warming, the headquarters on promoting the decentralization of power to localities, the ministerial panel on negotiations on normalizing ties with North Korea, and the ministerial committee on promoting tourism.
Meanwhile, the government set up a new panel on the decentralization of power and called it the committee on strategies for local sovereignty.
Hirano stressed that while some panels may be abolished, the Hatoyama government will also set up new committees based on "new perspectives."
Those abolished Tuesday were established under the Cabinet Office. The government plans to also reorganize panels set up at other ministries and agencies, Hirano said.
Other panels abolished Tuesday at the discretion of Cabinet ministers include the experts' panel on security and defense capabilities, the committee on reforming the Defense Ministry and the panel on promoting social security reform.