On February 16th, the Nikkei Stock Average was just 92 yen shy of its all-time high of 38,957 yen, set in December 1989 at the height of the bubble economy. Toshio Morita, chairman of the Japan Securities Dealers Association, said that the situation is different from then and that the rising trend of stock prices will continue in the future.
He also expressed the idea that a virtuous cycle in which price pass-through and wage increases are expected to boost profits.