Why is a subclass' static initializer not invoked when a static method declared in its superclass is invoked on the subclass?

Question

Given the following classes:

public abstract class Super {
    protected static Object staticVar;

    protected static void staticMethod() {
        System.out.p         


        

Answer 1

The JLS is specifically allowing the JVM to avoid loading the Sub class, it's in the section quoted in the question:

A reference to a static field (§8.3.1.1) causes initialization of only the class or interface that actually declares it, even though it might be referred to through the name of a subclass, a subinterface, or a class that implements an interface.

The reason is to avoid having the JVM load classes unnecessarily. Initializing static variables is not an issue because they are not getting referenced anyway.