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> かたい帯を上手に結ぶことができない若い女性が多い **ため** 、柔らかい帯を去年より３０％増やしたと言っています。

From <http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10010984931000/k10010984931000.html>

I would translate it as follows (without ため):

> They say that there are many young women who can't tie a hard Obi, from last
> year the number of soft obi has increased by 30%.

I can't find an entry on jisho on ため and I can't remember having seen it on my
textbook either :/
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2017-06-25T15:22:49.657
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question
grammar words particles
What does this ため say here?
It means "because". It could be replaced with から or ので. It's used in writing
more than in ordinary speech. Sales of soft obi have gone up "because" many
young women can't tie stiff obi. (I'd go for "stiff" rather than "hard".) ため
can also mean "for the sake of", as in 人民の、人民による、人民のための政治 "Government of the
people, by the people, for the people"
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2017-06-25T15:55:43.993
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So looking at [Jisho.org](http://jisho.org/word/%E7%82%BA), I think that you
are looking for definition 3 (consequence; result; effect​).

My translation is very close to yours:

> It is said that the usage of soft obi(s) has increased by 30% since last
> year, a result that comes from the fact that many young women cannot tie a
> [stiff](http://jisho.org/word/%E7%A1%AC%E3%81%84) obi.

Yuuichi Tam's comment is very pertinent, you can also translate that as
'Because,' but ため has a more formal context than から/ので。 The reason you may
have difficulty finding that translation stems from the fact that English has
[phrases that have similar meanings to
`because.`](http://www.dictionary.com/browse/because) Check the link for
examples. The truth is that ため is more formal and would be better translated
to `by reason of ___` of only just to keep the formal feel. If you don't care
about formality quite as much, just plain `because` is adequate, and 100%
accurate.

Retranslating that sentence using `because` we get:

> Because many young women cannot tie a stiff obi, it is said that usage of
> the soft obi has increased by 30% since the last year.

Hope it helps.
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answer