Japan’s Nikkei 225 reached a peak closing value of 38,915.87 before its 1990 crash.
The record was set on December 29, 1989, near the end of Japan’s asset-price bubble. During the 1980s, easy credit, rising land prices, and optimistic expectations pushed Japanese shares and property values to extraordinary levels. The Nikkei’s peak became a symbol of the bubble’s height.
The market then fell as monetary policy tightened and confidence weakened. Japan entered a prolonged period of slow growth, banking stress, falling property prices, and repeated stock-market weakness. The collapse is often associated with the country’s “lost decades,” although the causes and timing of that stagnation were complex.
The figure is a closing value, not the intraday high. The Nikkei’s intraday record was slightly higher, which explains why some sources quote a different number when discussing the 1989 peak.