Can Java render translucent text using sub-pixel AA?

I have found that while rendering opaque text in Java (latest version 6u23) uses sub-pixel AA just fine, rendering translucent text does not.

Sub-pixel AA:

The same text for which only the color has been changed from 0xFFFFFFFF to 0xBFFFFFFF:

As you can see, the translucent text is clearly standard AA and rather than a clean translucent rendering, it has that awful '90s "spidery" appearance.

Is this due to a technical limitation for sub-pixel AA in general, or a bug in Java, or just because Java doesn't even try for translucent text, or have I missed something?

Graphics Initialization

dbGraphics=(Graphics2D)dbImage.getGraphics();
if(dctRoot.properties.getBoolean("Antialias",true)) {
    try {
        Map hnts=(Map)(dctRoot.awtComponent.getToolkit().getDesktopProperty("awt.font.desktophints"));

        // SET AA ON OVERALL (NOTE: GENERAL AA MUST BE OFF FOR SUBPIXEL AA TO BE HONORED - TEXT WIDGETS MUST DO THIS THEMSELVES)
        dbGraphics.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);

        if(hnts!=null) {
            // SET FONT RENDERING HINTS FROM DESKTOP
            dbGraphics.addRenderingHints(hnts);
            }
        else {
            try {
                // SET TEXT AA TO FONT-SPECIFIED GASP AA (JAVA 6+)
                dbGraphics.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_TEXT_ANTIALIASING,RenderingHints.class.getField("VALUE_TEXT_ANTIALIAS_GASP").get(null));
                }
            catch(Throwable thr3) {
                // SET TEXT AA TO DEFAULT
                dbGraphics.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_TEXT_ANTIALIASING,RenderingHints.VALUE_TEXT_ANTIALIAS_ON);