The following is a chronology of major events related to the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average.
September 1985 -- Britain, France, West Germany, Japan and the United States sign the Plaza Accord to stop the U.S. dollar's rise against other major currencies, prompting the Bank of Japan to cut the official discount rate that had led to an asset-inflated economic bubble.
Dec. 29, 1989 -- The Nikkei index closes at what was an all-time high of 38,915.87 and hits an intraday record-high of 38,957.44 amid the bubble economy.
November 1997 -- Major Japanese securities firm Yamaichi Securities Co. collapses after a stock market slump following the burst of the bubble, leading to a banking crisis in Japan and causing the index to fall to the 12,000 level in 1998.
February-April 2000 -- The Nikkei index briefly climbs above 20,000 on sharp gains for IT-related firms, boosted by the dot-com bubble in the United States.
May 2003 -- The Japanese government injects public funds into Resona Bank, easing concerns over financial instability.
Oct. 28, 2008 -- The Nikkei index drops to 6,994.90, its lowest intraday level since the bubble economy burst, following the global financial crisis triggered by the bankruptcy of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
March 10, 2009 -- The Nikkei index ends at 7,054.98, its lowest closing level since the bubble burst.
March 2011 -- Northeastern Japan is hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami and subsequent nuclear power plant disaster, causing Tokyo stocks to plunge.
April 22, 2015 -- The Nikkei index ends above the 20,000 threshold for the first time in around 15 years on the back of the BOJ's aggressive monetary easing under the "Abenomics" economy-boosting program pursued by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
March 2020 -- The Nikkei index sinks to the 16,000 level amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Feb. 22, 2024 -- The Nikkei index ends at an all-time record high of 39,098.68.
