Japan had no barrage balloons ready for Doolittle

Did Japan use barrage balloons against the Doolittle raiders?

No; Japanese leaders did not expect American carriers to get close enough to launch a home-island attack.

Japan had not deployed barrage balloons over the Doolittle targets. Their absence is more striking than the situation at Pearl Harbor because Japan was already at war. Planners did not believe an American carrier force could approach closely enough to threaten the home islands. Strategic assumptions, rather than a lack of warning that conflict existed, therefore left this layer of air defense unprepared.