Optical receiving apparatus

The invention provides an optical receiving apparatus for receiving an optical DQPSK signal, wherein a phase difference between both arms of an optical interferometer is controlled to an optimum value. The optical DQPSK signal is incident on two optical interferometers in each which a delay-time difference between two arms is set to be equal to a 1-symbol time of the optical DQPSK signal and whichare orthogonal to each other. The optical receiving apparatus converts the optical DQPSK signal into an intensity signal and receives it. A differential amplifier obtains a difference signal betweenoutputs of a pre-amplifier and a discriminator connected thereto. The difference signal includes, as an amplitude, a phase shift in a phase section. A control circuit adjusts the phase of the phase section in the optical interferometers to reduce this difference signal, and changes the phase difference between the two arms to a desired phase difference.