One of the meanings of the noun 為 is “objective” or “purpose”.
学費の為の貯金。
Savings for school fees (literally: “Savings for the purpose of school fees”).
将来のための計画。
A plan for the future.
Often the hiragana will be used instead of the kanji.
当社は留学生のための奨学金を提供しています。
Our company provides scholarships for foreign students.
We can link it to a verb with に.
家族のために努力します。
Try hard for your family.
ため can be added to the dictionary form of the verb with に to indicate that the preceding clause is “towards the purpose of” the following clause. This structure translates to English as “in order to”.
節約するために自炊します。
Cook for yourself to save money.
飛行機が定刻に到着するかどうか確認するために空港に電話する。
Call the airport to check whether or not the flight will arrive as scheduled.
第一志望の大学に入るために、一生懸命勉強した。
I studied like never before in order to get into my first-choice university.
銀行口座を開くためには、印鑑が必要です。
In order to open up a bank account a personal seal is required.
Note the use of the topic particle to make “for the purpose of opening a bank account” the topic of the sentence. Without it, the topic of the sentence would default to you and a faithful translation might be:
銀行口座を開くために、印鑑が必要です。
In order to open up a bank account you will require a personal seal.
When used with the adverbial noun 必要 then ため is often omitted.
銀行口座を開くには印鑑が必要です。
In order to open up a bank account a personal seal is required.
学校を建てるためにお金を寄付する。
Donate money to build a school.
卒業旅行のために、バイトを探す。
Search for a part-time job for your graduation holiday.
A Critical Rule: Volition (ために vs. ように)
It is important to remember that ために can only be used with verbs that express intentional, controllable actions (volitional verbs). If the goal is a state or something outside of your direct control (such as the potential form of a verb, or a change in weather), you cannot use ために. Instead, you must use ように (so that).
日本語が話せるために、毎日勉強する。(✘)
日本語が話せるように、毎日勉強する。
I study every day so that I will be able to speak Japanese.
Because 話せる is the potential form (“able to speak”), it describes a state rather than a direct action, making ために incorrect here. Furthermore, ために usually requires the subject of the first clause and the second clause to be the exact same person.
Expressing Reason (Due to)
Used with the negative, past, past negative tense, adjectives, or nouns, ため becomes a more formal way of giving a reason for a current state. In this respect, it is close to “due to” or “because of” in English. Very often the target particle に is omitted in this case.
事故が発生したため、電車が１時間立ち往生しました。
The train was at a standstill for an hour due to an accident.
授業中に使う可能性が高いため、授業が始まる前に携帯を回収しています。
Due to the high probability of mobile phones being used during class they are collected at the start.