The Nikkei 225 lost almost 80% of its value during Japan’s bubble-era crash by 2003.
Japan’s asset-price bubble reached its peak in late 1989, when the Nikkei 225 closed at 38,915.87 on December 29. Extremely high property and share valuations were supported by easy credit and speculative investment. After monetary policy tightened, both stock and land prices began to fall.
The Nikkei continued declining through the 1990s and reached a low near 7,607 in April 2003. The collapse contributed to a prolonged period of weak growth, banking problems, deflation, and corporate restructuring often called 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 not the same as TOPIX, which uses a different construction and covers a broader set of companies. That distinction matters when comparing Japanese market performance.