A panel drive apparatus that requires no special mechanism inside a device body and that can be easily mounted on the device body.One end of an arm 330 is rotatably joined to a mounting plate 310 that can be mounted on the device. The other end of the arm 330 is rotatably joined to a panel 100. The mounting plate 310 has a fan-shaped fixed gear 320. A panel gear 350, which is a spur gear, is fixed to the panel 100. The arm 330 has an idle gear 340 that is provided between the fixed gear 320 and panel gear 350 so as to be engaged with the respective gears and that can be rotated by a drive mechanism 200.