A Gram-positive bacterium, strain M-6-3(T), was isolated from salt-fermented seafood in Korea. The organism grew in 0-10 % (w/v) NaCl and at 25-37 °C, with optimal growth occurring in 5 % NaCl and at 28-30 °C. The peptidoglycan type was variation A4γ with meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic cell-wall diamino acid. The polar lipid profile of strain M-6-3(T) consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, an unidentified phospholipid and an unknown glycolipid. Strain M-6-3(T) contained MK-7 as the major component of the quinone system and anteiso-C(15 : 0) (62.1 %) as the predominant fatty acid. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity studies, strain M-6-3(T) was most closely related to Brachybacterium rhamnosum LMG 19848(T) (98.5 %). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 71.5 mol% and the mean DNA-DNA hybridization value with reference strains was 14.32 ± 2.0 %. Based on phenotypic, genotypic and phylogenetic analyses, it is proposed that strain M-6-3(T) represents a novel species for which the name Brachybacterium squillarum sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain is M-6-3(T) ( = KACC 14221(T) = JCM 16464(T)).