A motor driving apparatus drives a motor by means of an AC/AC direct converter such as a matrix converter. The motor driving apparatus is provided with a current detecting section for detecting motor currents, a comparing section for detecting whether motor current detection values have exceeded a restriction level, an induction voltage calculating section for calculating induction voltages of the motor, a switching section, and a PWM pattern generating section. When the comparing section detects that the motor current detection values have exceeded the restriction level, the switching section supplies the induction voltages calculated by the induction voltage calculating section to the converter as output voltage instruction values.