Java Platform, Standard Edition or Java SE (formerly known as Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition or J2SE up to version 5.0), is a collection of Java programming language APIs useful to many Java platform programs. The Java Platform, Enterprise Edition includes all of the classes in the Java SE, plus a number which are more useful to programs running on servers than on workstations.

Starting with the J2SE 1.4 version (Merlin), the Java SE platform has been developed under the Java Community Process. JSR 59 was the umbrella specification for J2SE 1.4 and JSR 176 specified J2SE 5.0 (Tiger). As of 2006, Java SE 6 (Mustang) is being developed under JSR 270.