The welding distortion of a hull structure in the shipbuilding industry is inevitable at each assembly stage. The geometric inaccuracy caused by welding distortion tends to preclude the introduction of automation and mechanization and requires additional man-hours for adjustment work during the following assembly stage. To overcome this problem, a distortion control method should be applied. For this purpose, it is necessary to develop an accurate prediction method that can explicitly account for the influence of various factors on the welding distortion. The validity of this prediction method must also be clarified through experiments. For the purpose of reducing the weld-induced bending deflection, this paper proposes the plastic counter-deforming method (PCDM), which uses line heating as the optimum distortion control method. The validity of this method was substantiated by a number of numerical simulations and actual measurements.