In the 1980s, the Nikkei Stock Average rose rapidly as a symbol of the bubble economy, soaring from about 5,000 yen in the early 1980s to a high of about 39,000 yen at the end of 1989. This rapid rise was partly due to speculative trading in the stock market and partly due to real estate market conditions. However, after the burst of the bubble economy, stock prices plummeted and experienced a significant decline in the early 1990s. --v 6.0