Àngels Pelegrín, professor in the MSc in International Business of the UB Business School and coordinator for East Asian relations at the University of Barcelona, has been awarded the Order of the Rising Sun with Gold Rays and Neck Badge, which is awarded by the Japanese government. This distinction, which has been given in an event at the General Consulate of Japan in Barcelona, is a recognition of her work in promoting academic exchange and understanding between Japan and Spain.

Àngels Pelegrín wrote her doctoral thesis about direct foreign investment from Japan to Spain and has since made numerous stays in universities in Japan to conduct research on various aspects of the Japanese economy and its relationship with Spain. She has been a UB teacher for more than twenty years and, among other positions, has been the director of the Confucius Institute of Barcelona.

The Order of the Sun was created by Emperor Meiji in 1875 to reward merit in general, both in the civil and military fields. It currently ranks second in the Japanese Honorific System, only behind the Order of the Chrysanthemum.