The Nikkei 225 Index once hit 30,000 points in early Monday trading, the first time since August 1990. This is a sign that Japan's domestic economic recovery is intact, and it also benefited from progress in the US economic stimulus plan.

The index rose 1.6% in early trading, one step further on its way back to the level of the bubble era. Prior to that, the broader Tokyo Stock Exchange Index (Topix) recently hit a record high, rising to the highest point in nearly 30 years.

Although global stock markets have repeatedly reached new highs in recent months, the Nikkei 225 index still needs to rise nearly 30% to break through the record high of 38,915.87 points set at the close of the last trading day in 1989. In the three years that followed, with the bursting of the Japanese economic bubble, the index fell by more than half.

Shoji Hirakawa, chief global strategist at Japan's Tokai Tokyo Research Institute (Tokai Tokyo Research Institute), said that the Nikkei 225 index briefly exceeded 30,000 points, indicating that “various investors are pouring into the Japanese stock market with completely bullish views. ”

versusDow JonesLike the Industrial Average Index, the Nikkei 225 Index is also a price-weighted index. Uniqlo (Uniqlo) parent company Express Sales Group and SoftBank Group, the two most important stocks, account for nearly 19% of the index's weight, so they have a huge impact on the index's trend. Both companies' stocks have risen sharply over the past year.

Over the years, the price-weighted nature of the index has attracted criticism, saying that it does not accurately reflect the state of the Japanese stock market, or, in the words of one critic, it is a “primitive index of the abacus era.”

Also worth noting is that the index does not include some of Japan's biggest stocks, including gaming giantsNintendoand robot automation company Keyence (Keyence). Meanwhile, the Nikkei 500 index, which includes these two stocks, broke through the peak of the bubble period in September last year and continues to set new records.