A drive circuit for a switching element includes: a first power supply; a second power supply; a power supply switching unit that switches the first and second power supplies for applying the drive voltage based on a drive command; and an output switching unit outputting an output voltage switching signal to the second power supply that the output voltage of the second power supply becomes zero in a part of a drive period of the switching element including at least a part of an on-drive period, and the output voltage becomes a predetermined voltage other than zero in a remaining part of the drive period including at least a part of an off-drive period.