A driving circuit applies a voltage to a switching element to switch between an ON state and an OFF state. The switching element includes a control terminal, a high-potential terminal, and a low-potential terminal, and is switched between the ON state and the OFF state depending on the voltage of the control terminal in a case in which a potential of the low-potential terminal is defined as a reference potential. The driving circuit includes a negative-voltage power supply for applying a negative voltage as the voltage to the control terminal when the switching element is switched from the ON state to the OFF state, and a voltage changing unit for changing the voltage immediately before the switching element is switched from the OFF state to the ON state to be higher than the negative voltage immediately after the switching element is switched from the ON state to the OFF state.