Pedestrians walk past an electronic board showing the closing numbers on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, along a street in central Tokyo on Dec. 30, 2024. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225—on its last day of trading until Jan. 6—fell almost one percent. Overall, the Nikkei gained almost 20 percent in 2024, finally surpassing the high seen before Japan’s asset bubble burst in the 1990s. AFP