Java 7 no longer uses the fontconfig.properties file on Linux, though it still has all of the files as if it did. It now uses the Linux font configuration file libfontconfig, which has to be re-built after the fonts are installed.
First, with a text editor, modify the file: /etc/fonts/conf.avail/60-latin.conf
This is an xml file that tells fontconfig which latin font families to prefer for each alias type (serif, sans-serif, monospace, etc.). Move or delete font families under each appropriate alias to get the preferred fonts to the top of each list.
Next, to rebuild libfontconfig, run the following from the command line (prefix sudo if appropriate, of course):
dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig