WhyItDropped

Nikkei 225 · October 9, 1974

The First Oil Shock

-5.41%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

The oil shock in Japan

near the end of it · 1973-01-24 → 1974-10-09, -37.40% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • 9 October 1974 — Nikkei 225 fell 5.41%, as the oil crisis that began in October 1973 worked fully through the real economy
  • Japan imports nearly all of its energy. When crude spiked, production costs rose across the board
  • The country faced surging prices alongside a contracting economy
  • The period is recorded as a turning point for Japan. The postwar era of high growth ended, and energy efficiency and industrial restructuring became the task
  • Also the background to Japanese manufacturing's later focus on fuel economy and efficiency
  • Fell 28.93% from peak

Sources

Every figure on this page is recomputed from the original daily closing prices and checked against them at build time. The account of what happened is written from the sources listed above.