What name is commonly given to the collapse of Japan’s inflated stocks and land prices beginning around 1990?

Japan’s inflated stock and land market of the late 1980s is called the Japanese asset price bubble.

Japanese asset prices rose dramatically during the 1980s amid easy credit, strong bank lending, and powerful expectations of continuing growth. The Nikkei 225 reached its record closing level of 38,915.87 on 29 December 1989. Land prices, particularly in major cities, also climbed to extraordinary levels.

The Bank of Japan tightened monetary policy, and the bubble began to deflate around 1990. The Nikkei fell sharply, while falling land values weakened bank balance sheets and borrowers. Japan then experienced a prolonged period of slow growth, deflation, and financial-sector problems often called the Lost Decades.

The term describes the speculative boom as well as its collapse, so it is more precise than calling the event simply a stock-market crash. Japan’s later market decline was not confined to one trading day, and the economy’s difficulties continued long after the initial fall in share prices.