The Nikkei 225 reached 38,957.44 at the peak of Japan’s 1989 asset-price bubble.
The record closing level was set on 29 December 1989, after years of rapidly rising Japanese share and property prices. The Nikkei 225 is a price-weighted index of 225 major companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Prime Market, making it one of Japan’s best-known market indicators.
After the bubble burst, Japanese share prices fell for years. The Nikkei dropped below 15,000 by 1992, while the broader economy entered a prolonged period of weak growth and financial stress often called Japan’s “lost decades.” The market’s later history is distinct from the separate 1990s Asian financial crisis.
The peak is sometimes rounded to 38,916 or described simply as about 39,000. The precise commonly cited closing record is 38,957.44, which makes the Nikkei 225 the unambiguous answer here.