The Nikkei 225 reached 38,915 in December 1989 before Japan’s stock-market crash.
The index closed at a record high of 38,915.87 on December 29, 1989, at the height of Japan’s asset-price bubble. Japanese land and share prices had risen dramatically during the 1980s, supported by easy credit, financial speculation, and strong confidence in the country’s economic prospects.
The Bank of Japan tightened monetary policy, and asset prices began to fall. The Nikkei dropped steeply during 1990 and continued weakening over the following years. Japan then entered a prolonged period often called the “Lost Decades,” marked by sluggish growth, deflationary pressure, and banking problems.
The Nikkei 225 is a price-weighted index of 225 major companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Prime Market. It is often compared with the broader TOPIX, which uses a different construction. The 1989 peak remained unbroken for decades before the index again approached and exceeded that level in the 2020s.