diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
index a04908cf5d..2c62e64542 100644
--- a/.gitattributes
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -357,6 +357,8 @@ icu4j/src/com/ibm/icu/impl/data/icudata.jar -text
 icu4j/src/com/ibm/icu/text/CurrencyPluralInfo.java -text
 icu4j/src/com/ibm/richtext/textapps/resources/unicode.arabic.red -text
 icu4j/src/com/ibm/richtext/textapps/resources/unicode.hebrew.red -text
+tools/release/java/.classpath -text
+tools/release/java/.project -text
 tools/release/java/Makefile -text
 tools/release/java/icu4c.css -text
 tools/unicodetools/com/ibm/rbm/docs/images/TitleLogo_transparent.gif -text
diff --git a/tools/release/java/.classpath b/tools/release/java/.classpath
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..47558c40cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/release/java/.classpath
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!--
+# Copyright (C) 2009 IBM and Others. All Rights Reserved
+-->
+<classpath>
+	<classpathentry kind="src" path="src"/>
+	<classpathentry kind="con" path="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.JRE_CONTAINER"/>
+	<classpathentry kind="output" path="classes"/>
+</classpath>
diff --git a/tools/release/java/.project b/tools/release/java/.project
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..747fdce4e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/release/java/.project
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!--
+# Copyright (C) 2009 IBM and Others. All Rights Reserved
+-->
+<projectDescription>
+	<name>toolsj</name>
+	<comment></comment>
+	<projects>
+	</projects>
+	<buildSpec>
+		<buildCommand>
+			<name>org.eclipse.jdt.core.javabuilder</name>
+			<arguments>
+			</arguments>
+		</buildCommand>
+	</buildSpec>
+	<natures>
+		<nature>org.eclipse.jdt.core.javanature</nature>
+	</natures>
+</projectDescription>
diff --git a/tools/release/java/readme.txt b/tools/release/java/readme.txt
index 266fc8bb80..09eb1cd772 100644
--- a/tools/release/java/readme.txt
+++ b/tools/release/java/readme.txt
@@ -1,20 +1,16 @@
-# Copyright (C) 2008 IBM and Others. All Rights Reserved
+# Copyright (C) 2009 IBM and Others. All Rights Reserved
 
 A tool to generate a report of API status changes between two ICU releases
 
         To use the utility
-        1. Generate the XML files
-            (put the two ICU releases on your machine ^_^ )
-            (generate 'Doxygen' file on Windows platform with Cygwin's help)
-            Edit the generated 'Doxygen' file under ICU4C source directory
-            a) GENERATE_XML           = YES
-            b) Sync the ALIASES definiation
-               (For example, copy the ALIASES defination from ICU 3.6
-               Doxygen file to ICU 3.4 Doxygen file.)
-            c) gerenate the XML files
-        2. Build the tool
-            ant doctools
-        3. Edit the api-report.properties and change the values of olddir,   newdir ( don't need to set oldver or newver)
-        4. Run the tool to generate the report
-            ant apireport
+        1. setup ICU
+            (put the two ICU releases on your machine ^_^ 
+		run 'configure' in both releases (or runConfigureICU)
+	2. create a Makefile.local with these two lines:
+			OLD_ICU=/xsrl/E/icu-1.0
+			NEW_ICU=/xsrl/E/icu-6.8
+	   ( where these are the paths to the parent of 'source', etc)
+        3. Build the API docs
+            make
+	4. allow APIChangeReport.html to cool before use.