TOKYO, Feb 22, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Japan's blue-chip Nikkei 225 on Thursday finally broke through a record high set just before the country's asset bubble catastrophically burst in the early 1990s.

At 12:31 pm (0331 GMT), the Nikkei was at 39,007.79, beating the record of 38.957,44 set on December 29, 1989.

Japanese asset prices exploded in the 1980s, with Tokyo property prices hundreds of times more than in Manhattan and golf club memberships costing millions of dollars.

But in the early 1990s came a crash as investors fled in panic, with the Nikkei roughly halving in 1990 and real estate prices falling even more.

This ushered in Japan's "lost decades" of economic stagnation, deflation and ballooning national debt.

In recent months, in common with other markets around the world, the Nikkei has posted strong gains and on Thursday was boosted by bumper results by US chipmaker Nvidia.