Japan's Nikkei 225 reached a record closing value of 38,915.87 on December 29, 1989, before its 1990 crash.
The peak came at the end of Japan's asset-price bubble, when rapidly rising land and share prices encouraged further speculation. The Nikkei then fell sharply during 1990 as the bubble burst and stayed far below its 1989 high for many years.
The index is Japan's best-known stock-market benchmark and is calculated from 225 major companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Prime Market. It is price-weighted, meaning higher-priced shares have greater influence than lower-priced shares.
The 1989 peak is often confused with a later intraday record or with the index's eventual recovery. The closing record stood for decades and was surpassed only in 2024.