Abstract: In an automatic transmission for obtaining a necessary transmission gear ratio by disposing a plurality of gear trains on an input shaft 8 and an output shaft 19 which are parallel to each other, the present invention disposes two electromagnetic multiple-disk clutches C.sub.1 (or C.sub.2) and C.sub.5 (transmitting torque varying means) between the input shaft 8 and the output shaft 19 so that a torque is borne by the electromagnetic multiple-disk clutch C.sub.5 to make a shift operation at the time of shift-up and the torque is borne by the electromagnetic multiple-disk clutches C.sub.1 (or C.sub.2) and C.sub.5 to make the shift operation at the time of shiftdown. Accordingly, the torque from the engine can always be kept applied to the output shaft 19 during the gear change operation, and the occurrence of non-transmission of torque as well as the shock resulting from clutch connection can be prevented.