Taijin kyofusho (対人恐怖症 taijin kyōfushō, TKS, for "taijin kyofusho symptoms") is a Japanese culture-specific syndrome. The term taijin kyofusho translates into the disorder (sho) of fear (kyofu) of interpersonal relations (taijin). Those who have taijin kyofusho are likely to be extremely embarrassed of themselves or fearful of displeasing others when it comes to the functions of their bodies or their appearances. These bodily functions and appearances include their faces, odor, actions, or even looks. They do not want to embarrass other people with their presence. This culture-bound syndrome is a social phobia based on fear and anxiety.

The symptoms of this disorder include avoiding social outings and activities, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, panic attacks, trembling, and feelings of dread and panic when around people. The causes of this disorder are mainly from emotional trauma or psychological defense mechanism. It is more common in men than women. Lifetime prevalence is estimated at 3–13%.

"Taijin kyofusho" is commonly described as a form of social anxiety (social phobia), with the person dreading and avoiding social contact, and as a subtype of "shinkeishitsu" (anxiety disorder). However, instead of a fear of embarrassing themselves or being harshly judged by others because of their social ineptness, sufferers of "taijin kyofusho" report a fear of offending or harming other people. The focus is thus on avoiding harm to others rather than to oneself.

In the fifth edition of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM-5), variants of "taijin kyofusho" (shubo-kyofu and jikoshu-kyofu) are listed under 300.3 (F42) "Other Specified Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders".

One source even breaks "taijin kyofusho" into two different subtypes: neurotic and offensive. The first subtype can be broken into two parts that are classical type and avoidant type. The classical type being afraid of being judged negatively because of physical signs of anxiety and feeling shame due to anxiety. The physical signs that can cause fear of being judged include sweating and tremors. The second subtype deals with people thinking something about them is offensive. Some of their fears include body odor, gas, excessive or insufficient eye contact, blushing, etc.

In the official Japanese diagnostic system, "taijin kyofusho" is subdivided into the following categories:

- Sekimen-kyofu (), the phobia of blushing (ereuthophobia)

- Shubo-kyofu (), the phobia of a deformed body, similar to body dysmorphic disorder

- Jikoshisen-kyofu (), the phobia of eye contact

- Jikoshu-kyofu (), the phobia of having foul body odor (also termed olfactory reference syndrome, osmophobia or bromidrosiphobia)

Japan psychology also recognizes additional types of "taijin kyofusho" based on severity:

- Transient: This type of "taijin kyofusho" is short-lived and moderately severe. It most commonly appears in teens, but may occur at any time.

- Delusional: This is the most common type of "taijin kyofusho" and is the most similar to social phobia. It is chronic, often begins before the age of 30, and varies in severity from moderate to severe.

- Phobic with schizophrenia: This is a more complicated disorder. In such cases, rather than a phobia, "taijin kyofusho" is a manifestation of schizophrenic symptoms.

In cognitive models of social anxiety disorder, those with social phobias experience dread over how they will be presented to others. They may feel overly self-conscious, pay high self-attention after the activity, or have high performance standards for themselves. According to the social psychology theory of self-presentation, a sufferer attempts to create a well-mannered impression towards others but believes he or she is unable to do so. Many times, prior to the potentially anxiety-provoking social situation, sufferers may deliberately review what could go wrong and how to deal with each unexpected case. After the event, they may have the perception that they performed unsatisfactorily. Consequently, they will perceive anything that may have possibly been abnormal as embarrassing. These thoughts may extend for weeks or longer. Cognitive distortions are a hallmark, and are learned about in CBT (cognitive-behavioral therapy). Thoughts are often self-defeating and inaccurate. Those with social phobia tend to interpret neutral or ambiguous conversations with a negative outlook, and many studies suggest that socially anxious individuals remember more negative memories than those less distressed.

An example of an instance may be that of an employee presenting to their co-workers. During the presentation, the person may stutter a word, upon which he or she may worry that other people significantly noticed and think that their perceptions of him or her as a presenter have been tarnished. This cognitive thought propels further anxiety which compounds with further stuttering, sweating, and, potentially, a panic attack.

Physiological effects, similar to those in other anxiety disorders, are present in social phobics. In adults, it may be tears as well as excessive sweating, nausea, difficulty breathing, shaking, and palpitations as a result of the fight-or-flight response. The walk disturbance (where a person is so worried about how they walk that they may lose balance) may appear, especially when passing a group of people. Blushing is commonly exhibited by individuals suffering from social phobia. These visible symptoms further reinforce the anxiety in the presence of others. A 2006 study found that the area of the brain called the amygdala, part of the limbic system, is hyperactive when patients are shown threatening faces or confronted with frightening situations.

They found that patients with more severe social phobia showed a correlation with the increased response in the amygdala.

Anthropophobia or Anthrophobia (literally "fear of humans", from , "ánthropos", "human" and , "phóbos", "fear"), also called interpersonal relation phobia or social phobia, is pathological fear of people or human company.

Anthropophobia is an extreme, pathological form of shyness and timidity. Being a form of social phobia, it may manifest as fears of blushing or meeting others' gaze, awkwardness and uneasiness when appearing in society, etc. A specific Japanese cultural form is known as taijin kyofusho.

Anthropophobia can be best defined as the fear of people in crowded situations, but can also go beyond and leave the person uncomfortable when being around just one person. Conditions vary depending on the person. Some cases are mild and can be handled while more serious cases can lead to complete social withdrawal and the exclusive use of written and electronic communication.

In 2009, a study investigated the impact of anthropophobia in specific cultures. 50 patients diagnosed with anthropophobia, 50 patients diagnosed with neurasthenia, and 50 control subjects were recruited from hospitals in Beijing, China. Measures of anthropophobic and anxiety symptoms were administered to the subjects. The patients with anthropophobia could not even make eye contact with others and were afraid of being watched. The conclusion drawn was that anthropophobics, like neurasthenics, experience anxiety and depression, but "more cognitively and less somatically".

The onset of ORS may be sudden, where it usually follows after a precipitating event, or gradual.

Although the existence of ORS is generally accepted, there is some controversy as to whether it is a distinct condition or merely a part or manifestation of other psychiatric conditions, mainly due to the overlapping similarities. Similarly, there is controversy with regards how the disorder should be classified. As ORS has obsessive and compulsive features, some consider it as a type of obsessive compulsive spectrum disorder, while others consider it an anxiety disorder due to the strong anxiety component. It is also suggested to be a type of body dysmorphic disorder or, as it involves a single delusional belief, some suggest that ORS is a monosymptomatic hypochondriacal psychosis (hypochondriacal type of delusional disorder, see monothematic delusion).

The World Health Organization's 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) does not have a specific entry for ORS, or use the term, but in the "persistent delusional disorders" section, states delusions can "express a conviction that ... others think that he or she smells."

ORS has also never been allocated a dedicated entry in any edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In the third edition (DSM-III), ORS was mentioned under "atypical somatoform disorders". The revised third edition (DSM-III-R) mentions ORS in the text, stating: "convictions that the person emits a foul odor ... are one of the most common types of delusion disorder, somatic type." The fourth edition (DSM-IV), does not use the term ORS but again mentions such a condition under "delusional disorder, somatic type", stating "somatic delusions can occur in several forms. Most common are the person's conviction that he or she emits a foul odor from the skin, mouth, rectum or vagina." In the fifth edition (DSM-5), ORS again does not appear as a distinct diagnosis, but it is mentioned in relation to taijin kyōfushō (対人恐怖症, "disorder of fear of personal interaction"). The variants of taijin kyōfushō (shubo-kyofu "the phobia of a deformed body" and jikoshu-kyofu "fear of foul body odor") are listed under 300.3 (F42) "other specified obsessive compulsive and related disorders", and is about someone's fear that his or her body, or its functions, is offensive to other people. There are 4 subtypes of taijin kyōfushō. 17% of these individuals suffer from "the phobia of having foul body odor", the subtype termed jikoshu-kyofu. Although taijin kyōfushō has been described as a culture-bound syndrome confined to east Asia (e.g. Japan and Korea), it has been suggested that the jikoshu-kyofu variant of taijin kyōfushō is closely related or identical to ORS, and that such a condition occurs in other cultures. However, some (Western) sources state that jikoshu-kyofu and ORS are distinguishable because of cultural differences, i.e. Western culture being primarily concerned with individual needs, and Japanese culture primarily with the needs of the many. Hence, it is claimed that ORS mainly focuses on the affected individual's embarrassment, and jinkoshu-kyofu is focused on the fear of creating embarrassment in others. In this article, jinkoshu-kyofu and ORS are considered as one condition.

Synonyms for ORS, many historical, include bromidrosiphobia, olfactory phobic syndrome, chronic olfactory paranoid syndrome, autodysomophobia, delusions of bromosis, hallucinations of smell and olfactory delusional syndrome. By definition, the many terms which have been suggested in the dental literature to refer to subjective halitosis complaints (i.e. where a person complains of halitosis yet no odor is detectable clinically) can also be considered under the umbrella of ORS. Examples include halitophobia, non-genuine halitosis, delusional halitosis, pseudo-halitosis, imaginary halitosis, psychosomatic halitosis, and self halitosis.