An optical transmission system including an optical transmission device and an optical reception device that receives, via an optical transmission line, a signal transmitted from the optical transmission device, the optical transmission system including a transmission-mode selection unit that selects transmission mode information in descending order of priority out of transmission mode information, which is combinations of a plurality of parameters concerning transmission performance, the transmission mode information being a plurality of kinds of the transmission mode information common to the transmission performance of the optical transmission device and the optical reception device, a signal transmission unit that transmits, to the optical reception device, a signal modulated based on the selected transmission mode information, and a signal reception unit that receives the signal and modulates the received signal based on the transmission mode information selected by the transmission-mode selection unit.