Distances play important roles in cosmological observations, especially in gravitational lens systems, but there is a problem in determining distances because they are defined in terms of light propagation, which is influenced gravitationally by the inhomogeneities in the universe. In this paper we first give the basic optical relations and the definitions of different distances in inhomogeneous universes. Next we show how the observational relations depend quantitatively on the distances. Finally, we give results for the frequency distribution of different distances and the shear effect on distances obtained using various methods of numerical simulation. §1. IntroductionIn optical relations among observed quantities, distances such as the luminosity distance and the angular diameter distances play an important role. They are clearly defined in the homogeneous Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker model (Weinberg, 1) Schneider et al. 2) ) owing to the simple nature of light propagation in this case. In inhomogeneous universes, however, their behavior is complicated, due to gravitational lens effect which implies that light rays are deflected gravitationally by an inhomogeneous matter distribution. On the other hand, we also use distances to interpret the structure of gravitationally lensed systems.To correctly treat distances in inhomogeneous universes, it is necessary first to have a reasonable formulation for the dynamics describing local matter motion and optics and clarify the validity condition of the formulation. A set of fluid dynamical equations and the Poisson equation in the cosmological Newtonian approximation was introduced and discussed by Nariai 3) and Irvine 4) under the conditionswhere Φ, v, L and L H are the Newtonian gravitational potential, matter velocity, the characteristic size of inhomogeneities and the horizon size ≈ ct, respectively, and the spacetime is expressed aswhere a(t) is the scale-factor, σ(χ) = sin χ, χ, sinh χ for the background curvature * )