Why is import of class not needed when calling method on instance (Java)

Question

Something that's confused me - an example:

Thing.java:

import java.util.Date; 

class Thing { 
    static Date getDate() {return new Date();}
}

(same package) TestUsesThing.java:

// not importing Date here.

public class TestUsesThing {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println(Thing.getDate().getTime()); // okay
        // Date date = new Date(); // naturally this wouldn't be okay
    }

}

Why is it not necessary to import Date to be able to call getTime() on one of them?

Answer 1

Importing in Java is only necessary so the compiler knows what a Date is if you type

Date date = new Date();

Importing is not like #include in C/C++; all types on the classpath are available, but you import them just to keep from having to write the fully qualified name. And in this case, it's unnecessary.