The Python versus Java comparison is a red herring, I think. While Java is more verbose than Python, and some of that verbosity is from its type system, not all of it is.
A better comparison would probably be Python versus Scala, or Python versus OCaml.
It's a surprisingly common fallacy to equate Java with Type Systems.
Type systems can be far more expressive than what is available in Java, and can and should be used to enforce program correctness, reducing the necessity for additional testing.
Type inference, polymorphic typing, structural types -- the available tools in a comprehensive type system are woefully under-explored by most practitioners who consider Java to epitomize type systems.
The article (from 2003!) is an excellent treatise on the value of a proper type system as compared to Python, and moreover, how Java's type system (or C++, ...) should simply not be equated with "static typing".
A better comparison would probably be Python versus Scala, or Python versus OCaml.