I do not have a problem (yet), I just try to understand.

I want to update in openSuSe 13.1 (yes I will move to more recent releases soon)
from JDK-1.7.0 to JKD-1.8. I will download the tar-file, since the rpm does not seem to be available for openSuSe and eventually use update-alternatives
since I need to keep the present version. I have found instructions how to do this and I am about to follow them. But, I want to understand why the directory

/usr/lib64/jvm-export

with all the symbolic links in it is needed.
Would not /usr/lib64/jvm/ be good enough?

You are installing non-native software that neither the package manager nor the distribution repos can track. I install java under /usr/local and make symbolic links to the folder and name it java. Using that path in my configurations and executable links enabled somewhat dynamic upgrades and repointing without my having to touch every configuration file. You can install it under that lib folder, under /opt, under /usr/local, or as you please as long as you take care of configuring your systems and applications to use the correct paths.

Thank you wpeckham for your reply.
I knew that I had to fend for myself.
In the meanwhile I have successfully installed jdk1.8.0_121. All test so far positive.
I started from what I saw for jre-1.7.0-openjdk on my machine. That I had installed using zypper back then
when there still was a openjdk repository. I found the directory /usr/lib64/jvm that you would expect
but also /usr/lib64/jvm-exports, which somehow duplicated what was done for the jvm directory.
I ignore this for the moment. But, I am still wary that I might run into problems when I least expect it.

Peter

with the unsupported 13.1 ( went EOL in Feb of 2016)
you will have a ton of pain

but seeing as there are NO updates and you can basically uninstall zypper

you might be able to build from source if glibc is NOT a roadblock
and if the very old gcc is able to build the current jdk source

or see if a genetic tarbal will run in /usr/opt or /use/local