What was the name of Japan’s late-1980s speculative boom whose bursting triggered a prolonged stock-market collapse?

Japan’s late-1980s speculative boom was called the Japanese asset price bubble, and its bursting triggered a prolonged stock-market collapse. The bubble inflated the prices of Japanese shares and real estate to extraordinary levels before reversing at the start of the 1990s.

The Nikkei 225 reached its all-time closing high of 38,915.87 on 29 December 1989. After interest rates rose and credit conditions tightened, confidence weakened. The index then fell sharply, while property values also declined over many years. Japan’s banking system was left with large amounts of troubled loans linked to inflated land and asset prices.

The resulting economic stagnation is commonly associated with Japan’s “Lost Decades,” although the exact boundaries of that term vary. The bubble itself is not the same thing as the Lost Decade: the bubble describes the speculative boom and collapse, while the Lost Decade describes the prolonged economic aftermath. The episode remains one of the clearest examples of how a synchronized stock and property boom can damage financial institutions for years.