The spec reads:

"A component will only receive input method events if it also overrides
    getInputMethodRequests() to return an InputMethodRequests instance."

For class Component, this spec is not always true, since an application may
easily create input method events and send them to a component which
has added an input method event listener. The events will be sent to the listener.
This javadoc sentence is really a specification for the input context or
input method processing, not Component.