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Kanji for Sea
The kanji most commonly used for "Sea" are 海、洋.
海
Kanji that mean Sea
海 (umi / kai) is the sea — the water radical 氵 beside 毎, “every”: water that takes everything in. An island nation keeps it close: 海の日 (Marine Day) is a national holiday; 海の幸, “blessings of the sea”, is how menus honour seafood; 海女 (ama) are the free-diving women of the coasts. As a name element it is beloved — Kai, Umi, Nanami (七海, “seven seas”) — and its verbal cousin 海原 (unabara) names the great open main.
洋 (yō) is the ocean at planetary scale: 太平洋, the Pacific; 大西洋, the Atlantic. Because the West arrived by ocean, 洋 also came to mean “Western”: 洋服 is Western clothing, 洋食 Western food, 和洋 the Japanese–Western contrast itself.
Around them: 波 (wave), 潮 (tide), 灘 (rough open water), 渚 (the shore’s edge), and 凪 (calm — wind and waves at rest), each a page of the sea’s own dictionary.
Words using Sea kanji
Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.
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海外
かいがい
foreign; abroad; overseas
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東洋
とうよう
the East; the Orient; (East) Asia
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北海道
ほっかいどう
Hokkaido (island, prefectural-level administrative unit)
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海洋
かいよう
ocean; sea
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東海
とうかい
Tōkai region (of Honshu; incl. Aichi, Shizuoka, Mie and southern Gifu prefectures); eastern sea; Tōkaidō (Edo-period Edo-Kyoto highway)
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大西洋
たいせいよう
Atlantic Ocean
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海上
かいじょう
(on the) sea; surface of the sea
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西洋
せいよう
the West; the Occident; Western countries
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海軍
かいぐん
navy; naval force
Before you use Sea kanji
海 is expansive, maternal (the character 母 hides in its right side) and entirely positive — one of the best-loved nature kanji for names and skin alike. 洋 alone reads as "Western/ocean" ambiguously. Pair 海 with 山 (mountain) for the classic pairing, or with 凪 (calm) for the sailor's blessing.