Japan’s stock market reached the Nikkei 225’s historic peak before the 1990 Japanese asset-price crash.
The Nikkei 225 reached an intraday record of 38,957.44 on December 29, 1989. The peak came after a spectacular rise in Japanese share and land prices during the late 1980s. Easy credit, optimistic expectations, and aggressive lending helped inflate the asset-price bubble.
The bubble burst around the start of the 1990s. Stock prices fell sharply, land values declined, and banks were left with large quantities of nonperforming loans. Japan then experienced a long period of weak growth and deflation, often called the Lost Decades.
The Nikkei’s 1989 peak was not surpassed for more than three decades; the index eventually set a new record in 2024. The Japanese crash is distinct from the 1987 global stock-market crash, although both occurred during periods of major financial-market volatility. Japan’s episode also involved an extraordinary real-estate bubble, not only falling share prices.