String strConnectionURL = "jdbc:derby:/path/to/derby/database;create=false";
Class.forName("org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver");
Connection connection = DriverManager.getConnection(strConnectionURL);
Statement statement = connection.createStatement();
boolean boResult = statement.execute("SHOW TABLES");
if (boResult) {
    System.out.println("yay!");
}

java.sql.SQLSyntaxErrorException: Syntax error: Encountered "SHOW" at line 1, column 1.

String strConnectionURL = "jdbc:derby:/path/to/derby/db;create=false";
Class.forName("org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver");
Connection connection = DriverManager.getConnection(strConnectionURL);
CallableStatement statement = connection.prepareCall("SHOW TABLES");
boolean boResult = statement.execute();
if (boResult) {
    System.out.println("yippee!");
}

java.sql.SQLSyntaxErrorException: Syntax error: Encountered "SHOW" at line 1, column 1.

String strConnectionURL = "jdbc:derby:/path/to/db;create=false";
Class.forName("org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver");
Connection connection = DriverManager.getConnection(strConnectionURL);
DatabaseMetaData dbmd = connection.getMetaData();
ResultSet resultSet = dbmd.getTables(null, null, null, null);
while (resultSet.next()) {
    String strTableName = resultSet.getString("TABLE_NAME");
    System.out.println("TABLE_NAME is " + strTableName);
}

public void showTbls() throws Exception{
    String sqlIn = "SHOW TABLES;";
    InputStream stream = new ByteArrayInputStream(sqlIn.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
    ij.runScript(conn,stream,StandardCharsets.UTF_8.name(), System.out,"UTF-8");
    stream.close();
}

Statement stmt = conn.createStatement();
ResultSet results = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM sys.systables");

ResultSet results = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT TABLENAME FROM SYS.SYSTABLES WHERE TABLETYPE='T'");