Kamakura is super popular no matter WHS or not. It doesn't really need the title to be a great visit. It was more or less rejected to be one anyway, but the Japanese state party decided to withdraw rather than get a rejection because they would otherwise be blocked from retrying. So instead Kamakura is now in limbo for many years, waiting to reshape it's niche as a world heritage site.

The main draw are Tsurugaoka Hachimangū and Kōtoku-in, with the The Great Buddha of Kamakura as depicted. I had already donated my front view to the website so I am using a close-up of it. One can even visit the inside as it is hollow. The temples along could easily be positioned as a world heritage site in today's criteria, with something like Quanzhou being in a similar position to have "influenced" or "be influenced by" something.

The main problem is that the political seat the samurai had in Kamakura is not possible to be seen anymore. It's a modern Japanese town, no skyscrapers, but many shops and retail avenues, roads everywhere. The title is actually misleading because the description talks about "cultural properties reminiscent of samurai culture" which doesn't fit in my opinion. Getting from temple to temple doesn't give you the feeling that the town belongs in-between them, at least not in the sense what the state party wishes you to believe. So I am agreeing with the soft rejection, or bad feedback, but believe that they should try to get an assessment done and re-submit it for the temples rather than the entire town, and even if it would be resulting in a "suggest not to inscribe" that gets easily overturned nowadays.