After climbing past the psychologically important 20,000 barrier for the first time in more than 2 1/2 years early last month, the 225-issue Nikkei average now is languishing at around 19,500.
Although the closely watched barometer is in a corrective phase, its rise to 20,000 deserves close attention because it overcame downward pressure from sales to liquidate cross-shareholding ties and plunges in U.S. stocks.
Nevertheless, it is premature to say the Tokyo stock market has completely pulled away from the adverse effects from the bursting of the asset-inflated economic bubble of the late 1980s.