Abstract: Proteins in the NAC family (including NAM, ATAF1/2, and CUC2 proteins) are plant-specific transcription factors that play critical roles in plant development. To explore and exploit the excellent resistance-gene resources of zoysia (Zoysia japonica), a gene encoding a NAC transcription factor (ZjNAC) was cloned by blasting the Zoysia transcriptome database. The biological function of the cloned ZjNAC gene was explored by a phylogenetic analysis with OsNACs of rice (Oryza sativa) combined with protein and quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analyses. The bioinformatics analysis showed the cloned ZjNAC gene was 1496 bp long, and contained a 1332 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding 449 amino acids with a NAM domain. In a phylogenetic analysis, the cloned ZjNAC gene showed the highest homology to OsNAC036 from rice, and so the cloned gene was designated as ZjNAC036. The qRT-PCR analysis showed that ZjNAC transcript levels increased under drought stress, reaching peak levels (approximately 50-fold that in the control) after 8 h of drought stress. The transcript levels of ZjNAC did not show obvious variations under salt stress or cold stress. Together, these results show that the protein encoded by ZjNAC036 may play an important role in the drought stress response, rather than the salt or cold stress responses.