Japan’s stock exchange suffered the 1989 crash that marked the end of its asset-price bubble.
Japanese stock and property prices rose spectacularly during the second half of the 1980s. The Nikkei 225 reached its all-time closing peak of 38,915.87 on December 29, 1989. The Bank of Japan then tightened monetary policy, and asset prices began a prolonged decline.
The collapse was not limited to shares. Commercial land values also fell, damaging banks and borrowers that had relied on inflated collateral. Japan entered a long period of weak growth, falling prices, financial-sector stress, and repeated policy responses often called the “Lost Decades.”
The crash is sometimes described as beginning on one exact day, but the wider event was a multiyear unwinding of a huge asset bubble. The Nikkei’s 1989 record remained unbroken for decades; it finally surpassed that level in 2024, more than 34 years later.