Pericentromeres are obligate structural chromosomal parts that guarantee proper chromosome segregation during cell division. Pericentromeric regions of many eukaryotes are enriched in tandem repeats, therefore they are the most difficult genome elements to analyze. The genome of Japanese quail Coturnix japonica Temminck et Schlegel, 1849, the species used in biomedical research and poultry farming, is relatively small (≈1.41 Gb) and packed into 39 chromosome pairs. 41-bp tandem repeats PO41 and BglII are found in centromere regions of CJA4, CJAW and some quail microchromosomes. Here we report the deciphering of a new tandem repeat CjapSAT found within unassembled Japanese quail short raw reads (GeneBank accession number MH475922). In C. japonica genome there are several degenerated and truncated CjapSAT variants with basic repeat unit around 1180 bp and average A+T content of 68%. The Cjap-SAT repeat is specific to Japanese quail and is not found in any other avian genomes.