Elena Iachi (pronounced YAH-shee-ah) was born into the Philippines and grew up in Davao City. She is described by friends as a quiet, bookish woman with very few personal relationships and no professional ambitions. Elena studied art at university but ultimately chose a career in the legal profession, working first as an assistant for a lawyer and then as a paralegal before finally choosing a position as a teacher of English in a Philippine school.
Elena was a pupil of the more liberal arts school who expected a more intellectual and cultured life. Elena’s personality is described by friends as introspective, somewhat mysterious and sometimes even slightly eccentric. Elena was popular among her fellow students but often found herself the target of bullies at school. As such, she decided to spend her last years in Japan, retiring to Bali in Indonesia to work on her photography. However, she remained in touch with her friends from school and even began working as a freelance writer in 2021.
Elena Iachi has described herself as a Japanese national, originally from Manila. However, because Elena only ever left her homeland to study art in Japan, it is not clear how much Japanese nationality she possessed at any time. Elena’s Japanese citizenship may have been gained through marriage, work or other procedures whereby her father would become a Japanese national, or simply through her mother being born in Japan.