THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
December 31, 2021 at 15:50 JST
Actor Ryo Yoshizawa, far right, rings the bell to close trading at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Dec. 30. (Shinnosuke Ito)
The Nikkei 225 index closed at 28,791.71 on the final trading day of the year, a level not seen since Japan was in the midst of the roaring asset-inflated economy 32 years ago.
The Dec. 30 closing figure was the third highest ever and marked the third straight year-on-year gain.
In 2021, the index was driven up and down by the COVID-19 pandemic, the holding of the Tokyo Olympics with virtually no fans in the stands, and a change in Japan’s political leadership.
Ryo Yoshizawa rang the bell at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in a traditional ceremony to close trading for the year.
Yoshizawa starred in the yearlong Japan Broadcasting Corp. drama about Eiichi Shibusawa, considered the father of Japanese capitalism.
But like last year’s ceremony, fewer people gathered at the TSE on Dec. 30 to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The ceremony will also be the last of its kind because the TSE plans to reorganize its sections in April 2022.
Signs that novel coronavirus infections were spreading invariably led to decreases in the index throughout 2021, while any positive news, such as the start of vaccinations, pushed up the stock prices.
At times, the index topped 30,000, but it fell under 28,000 with the rebound in infections in the summer.
Investors were jittery over a possible change in government caused by the slumping approval ratings of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
Those concerns dissipated in September when Suga announced he would not seek re-election as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
On Sept. 14, the Nikkei index reached 30,670.10 points, the highest close in 31 years.
Rising stock prices prompted 125 companies to newly list their shares on the TSE, an increase second only to the 188 companies added in 2006.
The TSE was also propped up by the huge amount of funds that flooded the economy through monetary easing measures meant to deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic as well as various spending measures designed to ease the pain from the health scare.
(This article was written by Chihaya Inagaki and Toru Nakagawa.)
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