What was the name of the 1989 Japanese stock-market peak’s wider speculative boom in shares and land?

The speculative boom in Japanese shares and land that peaked in 1989 was the Japanese asset-price bubble.

During the late 1980s, Japanese equity and real-estate prices rose dramatically. Easy credit, strong optimism and speculation helped drive valuations upward. The Nikkei 225 reached its record closing level of 38,915.87 on December 29, 1989, while land prices in major urban areas also became exceptionally high.

The bubble burst around the turn of the decade. Share prices fell, property values declined and banks were left with large amounts of nonperforming debt. The resulting balance-sheet damage constrained lending and investment, contributing to a long period of sluggish growth known as Japan’s Lost Decades.

This term is broader than the stock-market crash alone because it covers both financial assets and real estate. It is also distinct from the dot-com bubble, which centered on technology-related equities in the late 1990s and early 2000s.