For Takashi Karube and many Japanese like him, the Tokyo stock rally has been little to cheer about. The Nikkei stock index hit its highest ever on Thursday, surpassing a record set in December 1989 and marking a once-unthinkable recovery for a market that spent much of the last three decades mired in malaise. Rather than the flashy spending and bottomless optimism of the bubble years, the 34-year-old Karube, born just two months after the stock market's 1989 peak, grew up with frugality and constant reminders of Japan's declining economic might.

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