A protecting layer (26) for the front plate (20) of a plasma display panel is constituted to include a substrate protecting layer (26a) formed of a thin film containing a metal oxide, and a particle layer (26b) formed by adhering aggregated particles (27) of a plurality of aggregated single-crystal particles of magnesium oxide, to the substrate protecting layer (26a). A panel drive circuit is characterized in that the panel is driven by generating an initializing discharge for establishing a wall charge in the first one of a plurality of subfields and by generating a writing discharge for erasing the wall charge for a writing period of the plural subfields.