Japan experienced the Nikkei 225’s record one-day point loss during the 1990s market crash.
The Nikkei 225 fell 3,836.48 points on October 20, 1997, during a period of intense financial stress in Japan and across Asia. The decline was linked to worries about the wider Asian financial crisis and the collapse of Japanese financial institutions, including Yamaichi Securities soon afterward.
Japan’s longer market downturn had begun years earlier. The country’s asset-price bubble peaked around 1989, after exceptionally high land and share valuations. The Nikkei reached an intraday high near 38,958 in December 1989 before entering a prolonged decline.
The 1997 point record is different from a percentage record and from the Nikkei’s later 1989 peak-to-trough history. Point losses depend partly on the index’s absolute level, so they should not automatically be compared with percentage declines.