A theory that grew in popularity in South Korea in the early 2000s and especially during the 2002 joint World Cup (and endorsed by the North Korean state) was that Japan as occupier had intentionally standardized the spelling on "Korea", allegedly so that "Japan" would appear first alphabetically. However, evidence of a deliberate name change orchestrated by Japanese authorities is circumstantial, for example, a 1912 memoir by a Japanese colonial official that complained of the Koreans' tendency "to maintain they are an independent country by insisting on using a C to write their country's name."