Are static members of a generic class different for different types in Java?

Question

@Spence asked this Previous Question.

So, how\'s that work in Java? Generic types are discarded at runtime in Java, so what happens to static variables of classes

Answer 1

Static members in Java can't have generic type arguments from the class that contains them.

public class Gen<T> {
  public static T foo; // compiler error
}

Answer 2

Static variables are shared among all the instances of that type, even of different type parameters.

From the generics tutorial, page 14:

As consequence, the static variables and methods of a class are also shared among all the instances. That is why it is illegal to refer to the type parameters of a type declaration in a static method or initializer, or in the declaration or initializer of a static variable.