This paper studies on the design of a looper control system for hot strip mill finisher using ILQ(Inverse Linear Quadratic optimal control) control method. The loopers are placed between each rolling stands and looper control plays an important role in regulating strip tension. The strip tension is controlled by raising and lowering the looper and by changing the speed of main work rolls. Firstly, it is shown from a nonlinear dynamic simulation that the strip tension is more influenced by difference of rolling speed than that of the looper angle. Secondly, a servo controller of the looper is designed using ILQ control method of which the characteristics and algorithms are simply introduced. Finally, the performances of the ILQ servo controller are compared with those of the LQI servo controller from computer simulation. In result, it is shown that the proposed ILQ servo controller has the better performances and robustness far parameter perturbations and disturbances than those of LQI controller.