This was actually just discussed about a week ago on this list. The best
solution (IMO) is to build a deb package of Sun's actual distribution
and go from there. There's a pretty complete writeup of the process
available at http://serios.net/content/debian/java.php
The short version is basically:
1) Download the latest JRE from java.sun.com
2) Install java-package and fakeroot (apt-get install java-package
fakeroot)
3) Build a deb of the JRE using 'fakeroot make-jpkg <downloaded
filename>'
4) Install the newly created .deb using 'dpkg -i <deb filename>'
5) Install the debian-specific java bits 'apt-get install sun-j2re<your
version>debian'
By far the most time-consuming part of the process is going to be
downloading the JRE and then waiting for the .deb to build. As long as
you're not using dialup you should be able to have everything done in
well under 30 mins.