Japan’s stock market suffered a historic crash after the Japanese asset-price bubble burst around 1990.
The Nikkei 225 reached an intraday high of 38,957.44 on December 29, 1989. Property and equity prices had surged during the 1980s, supported by easy credit, speculation, and optimistic expectations about Japan’s economic future.
After the Bank of Japan tightened monetary policy, asset prices began falling. The Nikkei declined sharply in 1990, and the downturn developed into a prolonged period of weak growth, banking problems, and falling property values often called Japan’s Lost Decades.
The crash is sometimes dated simply to 1990, although the stock-market peak occurred in late 1989 and the broader consequences continued for years. It was not the same event as Japan’s postwar stock-market crash of 1987 or the global market panic of 2008.