The answer to this question is both Yes and No, depending on whether you are talking about a top level class or a nested class in Java. You cannot make a top level class static in Java, the compiler will not allow it, but you can make a nested class static in Java. A top level class is a class which is not inside another class. It may or may not be public i.e. you can have more than one class in a Java source file and only needs to be public, whose name must be same as the name of the file, rest of the class or interface on that file may or may not be public. On the other hand, a nested class is a class inside a top level class. It is also known as the inner class or member class in Java.