On what date did Japan’s Nikkei 225 reach its record closing peak before its bubble burst?

Japan’s Nikkei 225 reached its record closing peak before the bubble burst on December 29, 1989.

The index closed at 38,915.87 on that date, marking the high point of Japan’s late-1980s asset-price bubble. Stock and land prices had risen dramatically during the decade, supported by easy credit, strong optimism, and speculative investment.

The Bank of Japan tightened monetary policy, and the bubble began to deflate around 1990. Japanese equities then entered a prolonged decline, while banks and companies struggled with bad loans and falling collateral values. The resulting period is often called Japan’s Lost Decades.

The 1989 peak is sometimes confused with later intraday records or with the date of the bubble’s full collapse. The important fact is that December 29 marks the Nikkei’s record closing high; the market’s weakness continued for many years afterward.