In Java, increment and decrement operators are unary operators that allow you to increase or decrease the value of a variable by one. The increment operator (++) can be used in two forms: pre-increment (++x), which increases the variable’s value before it is used in an expression, and post-increment (x++), which increases the value after the expression is evaluated. Conversely, the decrement operator (–) also has pre-decrement (–x) and post-decrement (x–) forms, which decrease the variable’s value similarly. These operators are essential for concise code and are widely used in loops and iterative processes.