A permanent magnet motor includes a rotor and a plurality of permanent magnets located inside a rotor core. One or more of the permanent magnets having relatively smaller coercive forces have a first magnetic characteristic that when a magnetizing magnetic field is caused to act on the permanent magnets, a magnetic susceptibility is substantially at 0 until reaching an inflection point during magnetization, and when exceeding the inflection point, the magnetic susceptibility enters a loop approximating to the hysteresis loop in a first quadrant, and a second magnetic characteristic that when a demagnetizing magnetic field is caused to act on the permanent magnets, a magnetic susceptibility is substantially at 0 until reaching the inflection point during demagnetization, and when exceeding the inflection point, the magnetic susceptibility enters a loop approximating to the hysteresis loop in a second quadrant.