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Japan's Tentative List

Before a site can become World Heritage, it must spend time on UNESCO's tentative list. Japan currently keeps three properties waiting there — one of them since 1992. (The most recent graduate is Asuka-Fujiwara, inscribed in 2026 after 19 years on this list.)

Temples, Shrines and other structures of Ancient Kamakura 古都鎌倉の寺院・神社ほか

Tentative since 1992KanagawaProposed criteria (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (vi)

Kamakura was the seat of Japan's first shogunate from 1192, and its temples and shrines — Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, Kencho-ji, Engaku-ji and the Great Buddha of Kotoku-in among them — preserve the culture of the age when samurai ruled Japan. It has been on the tentative list since 1992.

Hikone-jo (castle) 彦根城

Tentative since 1992ShigaProposed criteria (i), (ii), (iii), (iv)

Hikone Castle, on the shore of Lake Biwa, is an early 17th-century castle whose keep, turrets, gates, stables and moats survive as a complete defensive system. Like Himeji it is a national treasure — and it has waited on the tentative list since 1992.

Hiraizumi – Temples, Gardens and Archaeological Sites Representing the Buddhist Pure Land (extension) 平泉（拡張）

Tentative since 2012IwateProposed criteria (ii), (iii), (vi)

A proposed extension to the Hiraizumi site inscribed in 2011, adding further archaeological remains of Pure Land Buddhist temples and gardens laid out according to Pure Land principles. On the tentative list since 2012.

See the inscribed Hiraizumi site page

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, tentative lists of Japan.