The Japanese quail, also known as the coturnix quail, is a species of Old World quail found in East Asia. First considered a subspecies of the common quail, it is now considered as a separate species.

Coturnix vulgaris japonica

The Japanese quail was formally described by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck and the German ornithologist Hermann Schlegel in 1848 and given the trinomial name Coturnix vulgaris japonica.