Yeah, and Java is referred to as "3-4 times slower than C++", which makes me think it's probably from the late 90s or early 00s.

That said, most of the arguments for Java around improved speed might apply to any language that runs on the JVM, though someone else might want to chime in here (I'm a little out of my depth trying to talk about how Lisp, Ruby, etc are implemented on the JVM).