That doesn't include dividends paid out by the companies in the NIKKEI.

Even with dividends reinvested the Nikkei's return over the past 30 years is negative.

You could take the absolute worst case scenario if you want, I guess, but every other peak in the history of world markets has come back faster than that... Besides, that's not even fair. Why are you assuming the parent is talking about holding stocks bought at the peak? The kind of people that hold their stocks for years tend to be the kind of people who don't buy at a peak. Long-termers tend to be more of the Buffett persuasion; he has said that he wouldn't care if the market completely closed for 10 years, because he buys businesses that grow in good times and bad, and he collects dividends in good times and bad. All the while the employees of the companies are spending their efforts in making his stock more valuable.

A few typically means 2. Sure you can cherry pick one stock that didn't recover from 1989, but on average the market as a whole always recovers. Yes, there are outliers with some individual stocks.

Their population demographics are different from ours.

We will continue to provide workers and consumers over the coming decades - economy-wide demand will return once the crononavirus threat subsides.

Isn’t that misleading given the price of the Yen?