this text in section `5.5 Initialization` of the `JVMS21`:

    6. Otherwise, record the fact that initialization of the Class object for C is in
    progress by the current thread, and release LC .
    Then, initialize each final static field of C with the constant value in
    its ConstantValue attribute (§4.7.2), in the order the fields appear in the
    ClassFile structure.

changed in `JVMS22` to:

    6. Otherwise, record the fact that initialization of the Class object for C is in
    progress by the current thread, and release LC .
    Then, initialize each static field of C with the constant value in its
    ConstantValue attribute (§4.7.2), in the order the fields appear in the
    ClassFile structure.

see that in: `Then, initialize each static field of C` the mention to the fact that the field must also be `final` was dropped. Javac needs to catch up with this.

Thanks to Dan Heidinga for reporting this issue