The Nikkei 225 reached its pre-crash record of 38,957.44 on December 29, 1989.
The record came at the end of Japan’s asset-price bubble, a period of soaring share and land prices during the second half of the 1980s. Easy credit, rising property values, and strong optimism encouraged companies and investors to pay exceptionally high prices for assets.
The bubble began to deflate around 1990. Japanese equities and property prices then fell for years, contributing to the prolonged economic stagnation often called the Lost Decades. The Nikkei remained far below its 1989 peak for many years and set a new nominal record only in 2024.
The Nikkei 225 is a price-weighted index of 225 leading companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It is not the same as TOPIX, which uses a broader group of Tokyo-listed shares and weights companies by their market capitalization.