What type of token exactly is “var” in Java 10?

Question

In the last issue of Heinz Kabutz\'s newsletter, #255 Java 10: Inferred Local Variables, it is shown that var is not a reserved word in Java 10, because you can

Answer 1

var is a reserved type name var is not a keyword, It’s a reserved type name.

We can create a variable named “var”.

you can read here for more details.

var var = 5; // syntactically correct
// var is the name of the variable
“var” as a method name is allowed.

public static void var() { // syntactically correct 
}
“var” as a package name is allowed.

package var; // syntactically correct
“var” cannot be used as the name of a class or interface.
class var{ } // Compile Error
LocalTypeInference.java:45: error: 'var' not allowed here
class var{
      ^
  as of release 10, 'var' is a restricted local variable type and cannot be used for type declarations
1 error

interface var{ } // Compile Error

var author = null; // Null cannot be inferred to a type 
LocalTypeInference.java:47: error: cannot infer type for local variable author
                var author = null;
                    ^
  (variable initializer is 'null')
1 error

Answer 2

According to JEP-286: Local-Variable Type Inference, var is

not a keyword; instead it is a reserved type name.

(Earlier versions of the JEP left room for implementing either as a reserved type name or as a context-sensitive keyword; the former path was ultimately chosen.)

Because it's not a "reserved keyword", it is possible to still use it in variable names (and package names), but not in class or interface names.

I would think the biggest reason for not making var a reserved keyword is backwards compatibility with old source code.