Tokyo stocks find their mojo as bubble-era highs draw nearer

The roaring start to 2024 for Japanese equities looks to be on far more solid ground than last time stocks reached these lofty levels as investors bet the country is finally escaping deflation.

Gains in Japan’s two main indexes have outpaced all other major markets during the first two weeks of trade, reaching fresh 34-year peaks. That’s stoking the bullish view that the bellwether Nikkei 225 Stock Average is primed to gain almost 10% as soon as this year and reclaim its all-time record hit at the height of the bubble economy in 1989.

“There’s a strong possibility that stocks will go above their highs by the end of this year,” said Shigeharu Shiraishi, representative director at Know’s i-land Asset Management, and an industry veteran who had first-hand experience with investing in Japanese stocks during the period of overinflated asset prices in the late 1980s.