Shikatta ga nai (仕方が無い) is a Japanese expression meaning it "it can't be helped." Shō ga nai (仕様が無い) is a perhaps even more frequently used but grammatically identical alternative. The literal meaning of the phrase is something like "way-of-doing does not exist."

The phrase Shikatta ga nai is often cited by naïve Western observers as representing some sort of uniquely Japanese cultural trait of dignity in the face of defeat, death, or catastrophe. But in actual usage, this phrase is utterly ubiquitous in daily life, and is used in the same way as very similar phrases in other languages such as English's "it is what it is," and French's c'est la vie.

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