On what date did Japan's Nikkei 225 reach its pre-crash peak during the late-1980s asset bubble?

Japan's Nikkei 225 reached its pre-crash peak on December 29, 1989.

The index closed at 38,957.44, or approximately 38,957. This peak marked the high point of Japan's late-1980s asset-price bubble, when share and land prices rose dramatically amid abundant credit and optimistic expectations.

After the peak, Japanese equities entered a prolonged decline. The Nikkei fell sharply in 1990, and Japan subsequently experienced years of weak growth, banking stress, and deflationary pressure. The collapse is often associated with the beginning of Japan's “lost decades,” although the economic causes and timeline are broader than the stock-market fall alone.

The date is sometimes confused with later market lows or with the 1987 global crash. Japan's bubble peak came more than two years after Black Monday and was specific to Japan's asset-price boom.