Japan’s Nikkei 225 reached a pre-crash record close of 38,915.87 on December 29, 1989.
The record came near the end of Japan’s asset-price bubble, when both equities and land had risen dramatically. Easy credit, optimistic expectations, and aggressive lending helped push valuations to extraordinary levels. The Nikkei’s peak marked the high point of that boom, not the beginning of a lasting advance.
The Bank of Japan tightened monetary policy, and asset prices began falling soon afterward. The equity decline became part of a much broader economic stagnation often called Japan’s Lost Decades. The Nikkei did not return to its 1989 closing record for more than three decades.
A common mix-up is between the intraday high and the closing high. The index reached an intraday peak above 38,957 on December 29, 1989, but its highest close was 38,915.87. That distinction matters because financial indexes can finish below their session high.