It seems that Java debugger protocol (JVMTI) hasn't got good support for access to return value of function. This feature is supported for instance in Microsoft Visual C++, it is usually shown in the "variable's view" as a pseudo variable. The access to return value should be implemented in Java 6.0 (JDWP, JDI: Add return value to Method Exit Event), but it is inefficient and it requires setting up method tracing on method exits to be able to obtain the return value. Method tracing is slow and is different than step requests, see Eclipse 40912 bug report.
The only solution is to add method call to Expressions view, but there is a side effect - method will be called also from this view.