In Java, the break statement is used to exit a loop prematurely, regardless of the loop's condition. When the break statement is encountered in a while loop, the loop stops executing, and control is passed to the first statement after the loop. The continue statement skips the current iteration but does not terminate the loop, while return exits the method in which the loop is contained, which can also stop the loop if the method ends. pass is a keyword used in Python but does not apply to Java.