The Nikkei 225 was the benchmark index that collapsed in Japan’s 1990 asset-price crash.
Japan’s late-1980s bubble pushed share and property prices to extraordinary levels. The Nikkei 225 reached an intraday record of 38,957.44 on December 29, 1989. After the Bank of Japan tightened monetary policy and credit conditions became less supportive, prices began falling.
The Nikkei declined sharply during 1990, while land values and bank balance sheets also weakened. Japan then entered a prolonged period of slow growth, deflationary pressure, and financial-sector stress often called the “Lost Decades.” The market’s later low was far below its 1989 peak.
A common mix-up is treating the crash as a single day comparable to Black Monday. It was instead the bursting of a broad asset bubble, with effects spreading across equities, real estate, banks, and the wider economy. TOPIX was another important Japanese index, but the Nikkei 225 is the best-known benchmark associated with the episode.