A system and method for removal of array copies in Java by reusing a source array for the target array and potentially cutting the length of the source array. In accordance with an embodiment, the system comprises physical computers or similar computing devices; a computing or virtual execution environment; a virtual machine that includes a compiler and memory spaces for Java application bytecode and storage for generated machine code; and wherein the compiler performs a static analysis of the code wherever any array copy is found, and determines if the array copy can be replaced with a reuse of the source array as the target array, potentially followed by a cut operation, and if so modifies the generated machine code accordingly.