The Nikkei 225 peaked in 1989 before Japan’s asset-price crash and prolonged stagnation.
The index reached an intraday record of 38,957.44 on December 29, 1989. The peak followed years of rising property and share prices, abundant credit, and optimistic expectations about Japan’s economy.
After the bubble burst, Japanese equities and land values fell dramatically. The Nikkei remained far below its 1989 peak for decades, while banks struggled with nonperforming loans and the economy entered a period often called the Lost Decade, though the wider stagnation lasted longer than ten years.
The Nikkei 225 is a price-weighted index of 225 major companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Prime Market. It is not the same as TOPIX, which uses a broader market-capitalization-based approach. Japan’s crash was therefore both a stock-market collapse and part of a much wider property and banking crisis.