A rectifier circuit includes an inductor connected to AC inputs of a diode bridge circuit, a capacitor series circuit connected to a DC output, and bi-directional switches that are connected between the series connection point of the capacitors and the AC inputs of the diode bridge circuit. In order to reduce the loss that would occur if both bi-directional switches were driven at high frequency, one of the bi-directional switches is driven at the frequency of the AC input voltage and the other bi-directional switch is driven at a high frequency, and also general rectifying diodes are used as the diodes connected to the bi-directional switch that is driven at the frequency of the AC input voltage and fast recovery diodes are used as the diodes connected to the bi-directional switch that is driven at high frequency.