Robert T. Yamate (born 1950 in Monterey Park, California)[2] is an American diplomat of Japanese descent and a career member of the Senior Foreign Service.

[3] Yamate's early Foreign Service assignments included Tokyo, Japan; Budapest, Hungary; and the State Department Operations Center in Washington, D.C. From 1989 to 1991, Yamate served as the administrative officer at the U.S. embassy in Antananarivo, Madagascar.

[1] Yamate returned to Washington, D.C. in 1997 as deputy executive director in the Office of Personnel.

In 2010, Yamate became the deputy chief of mission in Dakar, Senegal, acting as charge d’affaires for a time in 2012.

[1] Yamate was nominated to be United States Ambassador to Madagascar and Comoros on July 31, 2014.