The Nikkei 225 is Japan’s main stock-market benchmark associated with the asset-price crash that began after the late-1980s bubble. It is a price-weighted index of 225 prominent companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Japan’s bubble involved soaring land prices and share values. The Nikkei 225 reached an all-time intraday high of 38,957.44 on December 29, 1989. It then entered a prolonged decline as the bubble burst, banks faced bad loans, and the economy moved into a period often called the Lost Decades.
The Nikkei 225 is distinct from TOPIX, another major Japanese index that is weighted by free-float market capitalization. The two indexes can move differently because they use different construction methods and represent companies in different ways.