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I chanced across this sentence while doing anki.

彼は高齢を理由に社長を辞めたよ

There are 2 を particles before the verb (in this case 辞めた being the verb). From what I understand of the を particle, it marks a direct object of the next occurring verb but in this case, there are 2 direct objects before the verb. How do I decipher this? I tried to search for these kinds of usages online but couldn't find any related hits on google due to me not knowing the proper terms for these usages. Any related links would be appreciated. Also why does 長を辞めた translates to resigned as president. In english, this would very literally mean that the action of quiting is done on the president, which doesn't really makes sense to me. Shouldn't it be 社長として辞めた instead.

Newbie
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  • I think in your sentence you missed a め in the verb – katatahito May 31 '19 at 07:48
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    @katatahito edited. Thanks for the correction – Newbie May 31 '19 at 07:52
  • and in the first time you have the sentence. Also in this case 社長 is the position not 長 – katatahito May 31 '19 at 07:53
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    @katatahito edited. Thanks again – Newbie May 31 '19 at 08:10
  • (sorry for all the separate comments) but searching for the phrases 理由 and を理由 on a [corpora](http://www.kotonoha.gr.jp/shonagon/search_form) gives results 19.6k and 1.1k respectively. It seems like one use of 理由 that isn't uncommon. So I would say it's safe to say that the first を pairs with 理由, and the second with 辞めた... as to what the grammatical nuances are, I will leave that to someone else – katatahito May 31 '19 at 08:34
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    Possible duplicate of [Meaning and transitivity of ゴミ袋を手に立ち上がる](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/20854/meaning-and-transitivity-of-%e3%82%b4%e3%83%9f%e8%a2%8b%e3%82%92%e6%89%8b%e3%81%ab%e7%ab%8b%e3%81%a1%e4%b8%8a%e3%81%8c%e3%82%8b) You can read 高齢を理由に as "with his high age as the reason". – naruto May 31 '19 at 11:11
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    This has been asked before... https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/60843/9831 – Chocolate May 31 '19 at 13:37
  • Thanks for the comments. I have now understood the purpose of the first を, but what about the second を. With the を, it would mean 彼 left the president instead of 彼 resigned as president, but the correct translation seems to be the latter instead of the former – Newbie Jun 03 '19 at 04:46

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