Public well - Kyoudouido

...By extension, it means a long, rambling discussion. The term was coined in reference to the way housewives would chat while cooking or doing laundry at a communal well in urban life in Japan around the middle of the Meiji period, and was likened to the method of decision-making called meetings that were just beginning to take hold in government offices and companies. The communal well, along with wooden, single-story tenement houses, was an indispensable facility in the densely populated residential areas of early Japanese cities.

*Some of the terminology used to refer to "communal wells" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…転じて，とりとめのない長談義をいう。明治半ばごろの日本の都市生活において，共同井戸で炊事や洗濯をしながら主婦たちがおしゃべりにふけるさまを，官庁や会社などでようやく定着しはじめた会議という討議決定方式になぞらえてつけた言葉が愛用されたものである。共同井戸は，木造平屋建ての長屋とともに，初期の日本の都市の密集住宅地域につきものの設備であった。…

※「共同井戸」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報