An underwater acoustic communication system includes a transmission device including N transmitters, and a reception device. The reception device includes M (M is an integer of two or more) receivers configured to receive M reception signal sequences corresponding to N transmission signal sequences transmitted from the N transmitters through sound waves, a beam former configured to suppress multipath waves other than direct waves of the M received reception signal sequences and to generate L (L is an integer of two or more) signal sequences from the M reception signal sequences, and a signal estimation unit configured to estimate the N transmission signal sequences based on the L generated signal sequences.