The Nikkei 225 peaked at the end of 1989 before Japan’s prolonged stock-market crash.
The index reached an all-time intraday high of 38,957.44 on 29 December 1989. That peak came after a major Japanese asset-price boom in which land and shares became extraordinarily expensive, supported by easy credit and optimistic expectations.
The bubble burst around the start of the 1990s. Japanese share prices fell for years, while falling property values weakened banks and borrowers. The resulting period is often called Japan’s Lost Decades because economic stagnation and financial stress persisted well beyond the initial market collapse.
The Nikkei 225 tracks 225 prominent companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It is not the same index as TOPIX, which covers a broader portion of the Japanese equity market.