After the death of more than 1,127 workers in the April collapse of a garment factory building in Savar, Bangladesh, many of the world's largest clothing retailers signed a pact to help improve safety in Bangladesh's garment factories.

Japanese retailers should join this pact, or make their own, to ensure that clothing sold in Japan is made at factories that do not endanger the lives of workers.

The number of similar deaths in labor accidents in Bangladesh have already reached into the thousands since 2005, while the mainly women and girl workers continue to make an average of $37 to $55 a month, the lowest pay for such work in the world — almost half of the next lowest pay in Cambodia and one-fifth the pay of Chinese garment workers.