Japan’s Nikkei 225 peaked at a closing level of 38,915.87 just before its 1989–90 stock-market crash.
The Nikkei 225 reached that record close on December 29, 1989, at the end of Japan’s extraordinary asset-price bubble. Extremely high land and equity valuations, abundant credit, and strong optimism had pushed Japanese share prices to historic levels during the 1980s.
After the peak, the index fell as the bubble deflated. The decline became part of Japan’s prolonged economic stagnation, often associated with the “Lost Decades.” The Nikkei’s record was not surpassed for more than three decades; it finally closed above that 1989 level in February 2024.
The figure is a closing level, not the highest intraday quotation. That distinction matters because financial indexes can briefly trade above or below their official closing value. The Nikkei 225 is a price-weighted index of 225 major companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Prime Market.