The Nikkei 225 fell from nearly 39,000 at the end of 1989 to about 7,055 in 2009 during Japan’s long post-bubble market decline.
Japan’s asset-price bubble grew during the 1980s, when land and stock prices surged alongside easy credit and strong optimism. The Nikkei reached an intraday peak of 38,957.44 on December 29, 1989.
After the bubble burst, property prices and equities fell for years. Banks carried large quantities of troubled loans, while weak demand and deflation made recovery difficult. The prolonged stagnation became known as Japan’s “Lost Decades.”
The Nikkei 225 is a price-weighted index of 225 major companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Prime Market. It is often confused with TOPIX, a broader capitalization-weighted Japanese index.