What was the nickname for Japan’s sharp 1960s stock-market fall after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics?

Japan’s sharp 1960s stock-market fall after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics was known as the securities recession.

The securities recession, also called the securities slump, developed in 1964 and 1965 after Japan’s spectacular postwar expansion. The Tokyo Olympics had symbolized national recovery and modernization, but economic growth slowed afterward. Corporate earnings weakened, share prices fell, and several securities firms faced severe difficulties.

The crisis became especially serious when Sanyo Special Steel collapsed in 1965. The failure raised fears about the financial system and helped prompt government and central-bank measures to stabilize markets. Japanese banks and major companies also created a stock-purchasing fund to support prices and confidence.

This episode is often confused with Japan’s much larger asset-price bubble of the late 1980s. The later bubble burst in 1990 and contributed to the prolonged stagnation commonly called the Lost Decade. The 1960s securities recession was earlier, shorter, and rooted in a post-Olympics slowdown rather than the collapse of land and equity prices at the end of the 1980s.