An optical packet switching apparatus includes (i) an optical packet switch for switching the route of an inputted optical packet signal and outputting the inputted optical packet signal, (ii) an input-side packet density monitoring unit for detecting the packet density of optical packet signals inputted to the optical packet switch, (iii) a first input-side optical amplifier provided on an input side of the optical packet switch, (iv) a first input-side variable optical attenuator (VOA) provided posterior to the optical amplifier, (v) a storage for storing the gain characteristics in relation to the packet density at the first input-side optical amplifier, and (vi) an input-side VOA control unit for controlling the attenuation by the first input-side VOA in such a manner as to compensate for the gain fluctuations due to the variations in the packet density at the first input-side optical amplifier, based on the packet density and the gain characteristics.