An optical transmission method for processing a signal based on direct detection includes setting, by an equalizer, an adaptive equalization coefficient by performing an equalization process during a training symbol field section in a frame of a received signal, performing, by a channel estimator, channel estimation to perform an equalization process of a soft output maximum likelihood sequence equalizer (MLSE) during the training symbol field section, driving the soft output MLSE, and compensating for, by the soft output MLSE, distortion of the received signal during a data symbol field section in the frame on the basis of the adaptive equalization coefficient and an estimated result value of a channel, and recovering, by an error corrector which allows soft-decision processing to be performed, the received signal by performing error correction on the received signal in which the distortion is compensated for.