Japanese stocks reach a 30-year high

Japan’s Nikkei 225 stockmarket index has broken through the 30,000-point level for the first time since 1990.

Cherry blossoms and Mount Fuji
After decades of false dawns, the sun is finally rising on the local stockmarket
(Image credit: © Alamy)

After several decades of “false dawns” the sun is finally rising on Japanese shares, says Ian Cowie on Interactive Investor. The Nikkei 225 index has broken through the 30,000-point level for the first time since 1990. Roaring Japanese markets had dominated financial headlines for much of the 1980s. When “the music stopped” few could have predicted that it would be such a long climb back. Sadly, “quite a few long-term investors in the world’s third-largest economy” didn’t live to see this day.

A protracted post-bubble hangover

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.