Bash Profile
I always have trouble remembering which file to modify when we need to update a path or something for Bash.
See here:
Best answer:
~/.bash_profile is only sourced by bash when started in login mode. That is typically when you log in at the console (Ctrl+Alt+F1..F6), connect via ssh, or use sudo -i or su - to run commands as another user.
When you log in graphically, ~/.profile will be specifically sourced by the script that launches gnome-session (or whichever desktop environment you're using). So ~/.bash_profile is not sourced at all when you log in graphically.
When you open a terminal, the terminal starts bash in (non-login) interactive mode, which means it will source ~/.bashrc.
The right place for you to put these environment variables is in ~/.profile, and the effect should be apparent next time you log in.
Sourcing ~/.bash_profile from ~/.bashrc is the wrong solution. It's supposed to be the other way around; ~/.bash_profile should source ~/.bashrc.
See DotFiles for a more thorough explanation, including some history of why it is like it is.
(On a side note, when installing openjdk via apt, symlinks should be set up by the package, so that you don't really need to set JAVA_HOME or change PATH)