An A-NPC circuit is configured so that the intermediate potential of two connected IGBTs is clamped by a bidirectional switch including two RB-IGBTs. Control is applied to the turn-on di/dt of the IGBTs during the reverse recovery of the RB-IGBTs. The carrier life time of an n− drift region in each RB-IGBT constituting the bidirectional switch is comparatively longer than that in a typical NPT structure device. A low life time region is also provided in the interface between the n− drift region and a p collector region, and extends between the n− drift region and the p collector region. Thus, it is possible to provide a low-loss semiconductor device, a method for manufacturing the semiconductor device and a method for controlling the semiconductor device, in which the reverse recovery loss is reduced while the reverse recovery current peak and the jump voltage peak during reverse recovery are suppressed.