It Can't Be Helped

仕方無い (shikatanai) and 仕様が無い (shiyō ga nai, spoken shō ga nai): it can't be helped, there is no way. Both are 仕方が無い in the shapes people say it, the first with the particle clipped, the second with 仕様 for 仕方, two words for a way of doing; the dictionaries note that 仕様が無い is now mostly pronounced shō ga nai. The sense is the same in all three: a thing is beyond changing and the speaker has stopped looking for a way. Of a person the phrase means hopeless; of a feeling, unbearably. Both forms are on this page, each design with its own characters.

仕様が無い (shiyō ga nai), spoken shō ga nai: it can't be helped. 仕様 is a way of doing, like 仕方, and the dictionaries note that the phrase is now mostly pronounced shō ga nai, so this design's romaji is the spelling and shō ga nai is the speech. It is the same idiom as 仕方が無い in the form people actually say, with the same three senses: nothing can be done; hopeless, of a person; unbearably, of a feeling. The design's words are the first sense: there is no way, so accept it.